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Ok, so UVa lost by11 last night to Maryland, but really it was tied until about the 18 minute mark in the second half. Before I knew what Dave Leitao could do for this group and what passion he could instill in his players, I would have said that we would lose by 18, and definitely would not have said that we would lead for 95% of the game. I think that since we kept the lead until there was so little time left, that I didn't pay attention to the officiating, but apparently message boards are blowing up with how bad it was. There were a few calls that were horrible. JR Reynolds got absolutely mugged while taking a 3 in the corner and it was simply called an out of bounds to Virginia. Jason Cain got run over while holding his ground a couple times (although he got a couple charge calls to go his way) and it wasn't called.
I know that the Sabre is FULL of very bipolar posters that tend to get overwhelmed in the momentum of what is going on. I know that we lost because we ran out of gas and didn't make any shots down the stretch. We need TJ to come back and compliment Singletary because Campbell simply can't do it, and Singletary will wear out if he has to play the whole game.
So why can't I help feeling like we got a bad deal last night with the officiating? Am I programmed to think that the world is against me, or am I simply lumping Gary Williams and Maryland in with Coach K and Duke? How was it last night with Duke/UNC? Given the name of this blog I should watch the Duke games for some commentary. Duke won a close one, and I wonder again how the officiating was.
At any rate, watch out when UVa gets more talent and some inside players. They've already way surpassed my expectations.
-K
posted by Kevin Hirst at 7:41 AM
1 Comments:
came across your blog looking for Duke/UNC and Duke/Maryland stuff...
I'm a Duke fan, but I also understand why people don't like them.
As for the officials "controversy", though, I don't think there is much to it. For one thing, while they shoot many more FT's than their opponents, at least one team shoots more by a wider margin. Duke has shot 210 more FT's than opponents this year. UConn, however, has shot 241 more than their oppponents. Maybe they should be the first target. But they're not as hated as Duke around the country, and nobody's talking about it - even ESPN, who should know this. Many teams this year have outshot their opponents in FT's by over 100 - including Texas, North Carolina, Maryland and Michigan State. I'm sure there are many more. But only Duke's 'advantage' is questioned.
So I don't think there is much to it. A couple of calls (which people claim "cost BC the game" or "cost FSU the game" - but of course that can't be proven) have given them some bad press this year, mainly becuase now ESPN and others are asking the "does Duke get all the calls" questions.
In my opinion (of course, I'm a duke fan) in the UNC game the refs didn't make several obvious calls that would've been in Duke's favor. But duke still won - and UNC shot more FT's and Duke was called for more fouls. And they still won on the road.
So, I don't put much stock into it. Do they get favorable calls here and there? Sure, as do all successful teams in all sports (someone tell me jordan didn't push off on byron russell to hit that winning shot in 98). Is their some unfair advantage or conspiracy? I've yet to see evidence other than losing teams complaining, which is no evidence at all.
Enjoyed reading your stuff and look forward to reading more (I like to read both sides - don't want to blindly listen to Duke fans:). I'll try not to make any more long posts like this (sorry.)
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