Big East Refs Blow…. II: This Time is for Real

(And this follows a “stellar” season of football officiating for the Big East…Uconn scores on phantom fair catch no-call anyone?)

The problem is, these aren’t difficult calls they are missing. These are either easy calls, or they are making inconceivable calls that shouldn’t have even been considered, let alone acted upon, in the first place.

1) WVU gets jobbed after Ewing “blocks” the last second shot by Da’sean Butler.  It’s clearly goaltending, but the refs hesitate and then decide not to make the call.

Instead, they run off the court as Huggins desperately tries to chase them down. Although it was a tough call to make, and can’t be reviewed after the fact, the review showed that the ball was CLEARLY on it’s way down, and it’s a play refs should be able to call even in a tough situation.

I might be able to concede not intervening on the final play if this were a Hoya homegame, but to make that call at WVU is a smack in the face. Worst of all, you can see from the pic that the ref's in perfect position to make the right call: right underneath the basket!

IMHO, if it comes down to that game deciding whether the Mountaineers make the tournament, the committee should consider this game a win. It probably would have been the signature win that a bubble team like WVU will need to make the tournament at-large.

2) WVU again get’s massively screwed when the refs decide that a shooter who already made both his free throws wasn’t the one who was fouled. From the AP:

“When the Mountaineers finally made two free throws, by Alexander with slightly more than 4 minutes remaining, they were wiped off -- the officials reviewed the game tape and decided Thoroughman should have been on the line instead. He went to the line and missed the front end of the 1-and-1."

"I've never been involved in anything like that," Huggins said.

The Pirates went on to win the game by one point on a last second Ronald Ramon three point shot. Now this is less a clear cut screwing because who knows how those two points would have changed the game in the course of events.

But, the call itself is retarded. How can you possibly take the points back after the free throws have already been shot? To make matters worse, both players were fouled on the play (from what I could see) so instead of correcting an obvious mistake, the refs took away points because they changed their minds on a judgement call.

I would be the first to advocate for a more complete system of challenges and reviews in basketball (I even think coaches should be given a couple challenges to keep at the ready in cases where a big foul call drastically changes the course of a game).

Taking away points already earned because the refs reviewed the tape and decided the other guy might have been fouled a split-second earlier is idiotic and should not be part of review.

If they can’t review a goaltending call after the fact, they sure as hell shouldn’t be able to change foul shooters in a highly subjective foul situation.

3) Which brings us to tonight’s grand finale of terrible Big East calls.  This one, by far, takes the cake.

Basically, the refs GAVE another win by calling a phantom foul (one that would have been questionable even in the middle of the game) with .1 seconds left. The call was made (get this) 80+ feet from the basket.

Obviously, with that little time on the clock, even if the tiny hip bump did send the player out of bounds, no advantage is gained or lost by being bumped with so little time left.

Georgetown’s John Wallace, who sunk both free throws to win the game, wouldn’t have gotten a shot off anyway. Nor could Villanova, if given the ball out of bounds, have gotten a shot off. The game should have gone to overtime. Period.

What made the call even worse was that Scottie Reynolds took more contact, himself, on his way to the rim on the possession which led to the final call and received no such ticky-tack game changing foul call.

Obviously, Jay Wright was incensed and just stood there slack-jawed, staring at the ref, motioning from the Reynolds' no-call to the Wallace foul and back again. Perhaps even a more defining image, though, was John Thompson III slightly shaking his head as he approached to shake hands as if to say, “Sorry, you really got screwed there.”

This one doesn’t require any further debate. It was plainly a bad call. All the announcers agreed. The question is, why was it allowed to happen?

Yes, the ref should have swallowed his whistle, but can’t the other refs come in after the fact and correct him? Can’t they at least determine that the game clock expired before the foul?

Call it an inadvertent whistle.  Give Georgeown the ball out of bounds with .1 seconds left.  Who cares, but don’t throw the entire game away because a ref made an awful split-second decision in the heat of the moment.

This is the kind of play where a coach's challenge (two or three per game tops and bad challenges cost a timeout) on important foul calls could be helpful. Just because it’s a subjective call doesn’t mean that there isn’t a right and a wrong call (same thing with pass interference in football, which will hopefully be changed next season).

For the time being, somebody in the Big East should apologize to Villanova and maybe Bob Huggins while they’re at it. Nobody’s face should get that red…not even Bobby Knight’s.