Its east to blame the refs in this one

[Eagles20]

Its hard to not watch this one and get frustrated with many calls that should have went our way..

BUT

Syracuse still had many opportunities regardless of the refs to win this one on their own:


-Mike G had many good looks in the second half around the foul line that he missed and a wide open 3
-Kaleb had open 3's that he missed and a bad turnover on a pass to Cooney that led to a Hilliard dunk
-Mike G looked really shaky as the inbounds passer and waisted a timeout where he had trevor wide open. We could have really used that timeout later in the game
-Mike G went 1-2 down the stretch on free throws...needed both there
-We gave up a basket in under 6 seconds...why don't we send a guard up the floor to make Nova pick the ball up in the back court. Send token pressure to make them pick it up and then hustle that guard back to play defense.
-Cooney shouldn't have followed Archidiacno all the way to the baseline giving up a wide open 3 where that was way more damaging up 5 rather than a possible two or having nova run more time off the clock to earn points.
- Regardless if you think Cooney was fouled or flopped late...where was our other 3 guys in trying to get open to get the ball in bounds? Christmas should have attacked that ball better and been able to come down with it and get fouled. Why was Chris even on the same side side as christmas there?? that is terrible spacing when trying to get the ball in bounds.
- the opening stretch to the second half set the tone for Villanova and they got back into the game quickly. A better start to the second half and we put this away.

Villanova was the more physical team the whole second half and outmuscled syracuse quit a few times. They played good half court pressure defense and the refs allowed it. It seems like the team that plays that way and is the aggressor is always rewarded by the stripes...Rick Patino teams play like this all the time and seem to always be rewarded.

I seem to look at what syracuse could have done better to win the game and less to leaving it up to the refs to blow it for you. I also understand as a fan the frustration with the refs as well.

Overall, i said the other day this was going to be a key game for the season and seeing how this team plays against the best talent we have faced so far. Im very optimistic with how this team played and feel their are good things to come. Overall, I was more impressed with Joseph than at any other time this season. Other than the give way to hilliard he didn't do anything to hurt like in games past.

 

[CusefanATL]

its also easy to say the sky is blue.

 

[orange79]

Agreed, the refereeing was truly atrocious. We just weren't quite good enough to overcome it.

 

[RF2044]

Agreed, the refereeing was truly atrocious. We just weren't quite good enough to overcome it.

We shouldn't have HAD to overcome it.

Our bigs were in foul trouble early, and several calls that went against us were BS touch fouls, while on the opposite side they got away with murder.

It wouldn't have been close at the end, had not the refs kept Villanova in the game. So while I resonate with Eagles20's post above about the many things we could have executed better, it still doesn't change the FACT that the officials single-handedly kept Villanova in the game, handcuffed us defensively and on the boards by sending McCullough to the bench on a couple of chippie calls, and allowing them to mug us repeatedly to prevent us from getting the same clean looks we enjoyed much of the first half.

Frustrating as hell to lose a game this way. Especially when we could and should have won, despite the list EAgles posts above.

 

[orange79]

After the game, I felt like JB felt

 

[orangefan13]

mccullough got pulled from the 17 to the 4 mintue mark, we couldn't put him back in incase rak fouled out.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

The only thing your post needed was the title, man.

 

[Eagles20]

mccullough got pulled from the 17 to the 4 mintue mark, we couldn't put him back in incase rak fouled out.

i would have rather had Roberson in the game for the majority of the game today. It still would have been nice to have chris available because he does have ability and skill. The refs did do him a disservice. Chris limited physical stature was really highlighted today. He got bullied on many plays. He is young guy with limited experiences, but i thought Roberson fought hard and didn't get pushed around.

I thought nova trashing their token press at half was very smart as well. They switched to a pressure half court defense which really exposed syracuse lack of physical strength. Early in the second half it really took syracuse out of their offensive flow that they had the whole first half and turned the momentum early in the second half.

 

[Eagles20]

The only thing your post needed was the title, man.

I don't live my life like that man. I try to look at what i could personally do better rather than putting blame solely on something or someone else. Hey, everyone looks at things differently.

 

[Madbiker]

Its hard to not watch this one and get frustrated with many calls that should have went our way..

BUT

Syracuse still had many opportunities regardless of the refs to win this one on their own:


-Mike G had many good looks in the second half around the foul line that he missed and a wide open 3
-Kaleb had open 3's that he missed and a bad turnover on a pass to Cooney that led to a Hilliard dunk
-Mike G looked really shaky as the inbounds passer and waisted a timeout where he had trevor wide open. We could have really used that timeout later in the game
-Mike G went 1-2 down the stretch on free throws...needed both there
-We gave up a basket in under 6 seconds...why don't we send a guard up the floor to make Nova pick the ball up in the back court. Send token pressure to make them pick it up and then hustle that guard back to play defense.
-Cooney shouldn't have followed Archidiacno all the way to the baseline giving up a wide open 3 where that was way more damaging up 5 rather than a possible two or having nova run more time off the clock to earn points.
- Regardless if you think Cooney was fouled or flopped late...where was our other 3 guys in trying to get open to get the ball in bounds? Christmas should have attacked that ball better and been able to come down with it and get fouled. Why was Chris even on the same side side as christmas there?? that is terrible spacing when trying to get the ball in bounds.
- the opening stretch to the second half set the tone for Villanova and they got back into the game quickly. A better start to the second half and we put this away.

Villanova was the more physical team the whole second half and outmuscled syracuse quit a few times. They played good half court pressure defense and the refs allowed it. It seems like the team that plays that way and is the aggressor is always rewarded by the stripes...Rick Patino teams play like this all the time and seem to always be rewarded.

I seem to look at what syracuse could have done better to win the game and less to leaving it up to the refs to blow it for you. I also understand as a fan the frustration with the refs as well.

Overall, i said the other day this was going to be a key game for the season and seeing how this team plays against the best talent we have faced so far. Im very optimistic with how this team played and feel their are good things to come. Overall, I was more impressed with Joseph than at any other time this season. Other than the give way to hilliard he didn't do anything to hurt like in games past.

Joseph was certainly better today than he has been. But he has a habit of foolishly killing his dribble 35 feet out and then getting trapped and making a bad pass for a turn over. He did it like 5 times today. The coaches need to correct that...or kick him in the pants when he does it. He has made no progress in this yet.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

I don't live my life like that man. I try to look at what i could personally do better rather than putting blame solely on something or someone else. Hey, everyone looks at things differently.

Oh, come on.

 

[Millhouse]

Oh, come on.

he is an inspiration to me. He makes me want to be all I can be

 

[pearl31]

could be south or west, too :noidea:

 

[OttoinGrotto]

he is an inspiration to me. He makes me want to be all I can be

I know I need to change. I don't know why I fight myself.

 

[Orangezoo]

How do you overcome something when that thing totally changes both the score and the personnel you put on the court? Lets use a business analogy. If you have two programmers on a project and both get pulled away from their project when they shouldnt.. is the expectation the 3 other project team members should learn to code in 30 minutes to get the job done? They would do their best to find a work around but the very fact they were taken away from the project defeated its ability to succeed.

 

[Eagles20]

he is an inspiration to me. He makes me want to be all I can be

better than totally blaming the refs..shows a bit of weakness

 

[Orangezoo]

Blame and accountability are at either end of the street. There is no requirement for officials to speak to their accountability for the outcome of the game nor should their be. Yet we can say that it solely rests on what we should do better. If it was an unofficiated game then sure. It is however a sport managed by 3 dudes in stripes and played by the athletes. So both have to be accountable for their actions. In this case the officials failed to do their job right and should absolutely be accountable for the outcome. Does that mean the players are not responsible in some part? No they could have played better. The opportunity to do so was reduced by the officiating. It is rare you can say players make it hard for officials to do better..

 

[RF2044]

better than totally blaming the refs..shows a bit of weakness

It isn't blame, it is observation.

And today, the refs were tremendously lopsided. This isn't a situation where people are complaining about a questionable call and rationalizing that it "cost" us the game--this was a consistent pattern of one-sided officating that blatantly favored one team. And by the way, having both Rak and CMac in early foul trouble really hurt us defensively and on the boards--two indirect advantages that villanova was able to exploit to get back into the game. Meanwhile, their center had zero fouls.

Pretending that today's screw job didn't happen is like burying one's head in the sand.

It's okay to point out what everybody--including our beat reporters--saw occur during the game.

 

[Orangezoo]

In all honesty with as inconsistent as officiating is anymore id almost like to see them change the dq foul limits as well as when teams are in the bonus. Kill off the 1 and 1 go to 10 fouls for the bonus and use nba like rules for under 2 minutes left.

 

[Eagles20]

I would also like to see syracuse be the aggressor once and awhile against physical teams. Instead of allowing team like Louisville,Pitt, and today Villanova push them all around the court. Pinkston took it to every big man we had an totally out muscled them every time under the basket as our players stood their with their hands up giving him the lay ups. No hard foul once or even jump to try to block the shot. Cooney didn't fight back once as he got pushed around every screen... villanova controlled the physical nature of the game the whole second half. We want the refs to bail us out on the last possession.. christmas showed no fight going for that ball. All he does is have the look on his face in disbelief after every foul or bad play.

 

[Orangezoo]

The call disparity today is why we don't seek to be the aggressor more. Go back to arinze and the flops called against him. Defensively we see our guys get called early for being aggressive. Cmac went up aggressively on that rebound. Its a fine line. Somewhat hidden in your response is we should play a different defense and while i agree at times tactically i disagree that should be used to help us with how the games are called.

 

[RF2044]

I would also like to see syracuse be the aggressor once and awhile against physical teams. Instead of allowing team like Louisville,Pitt, and today Villanova push them all around the court. Pinkston took it to every big man we had an totally out muscled them every time under the basket as our players stood their with their hands up giving him the lay ups. No hard foul once or even jump to try to block the shot. Cooney didn't fight back once as he got pushed around every screen... villanova controlled the physical nature of the game the whole second half. We want the refs to bail us out on the last possession.. christmas showed no fight going for that ball. All he does is have the look on his face in disbelief after every foul or bad play.

True. But in fairness, there wasn't much we could do in the second half other than stand there with our hands straight up in the air, since both of our bigs were in foul trouble.

That is something that Villanova is coached to do, BTW. Get into the post, up fake, dip the shoulder to create separation, initiate contact and throw the ball up to draw the whistle.

That play where their center did all of that, but threw the ball behind him because he tried to initiate contact but our defender stepped away--so he fell down, threw the ball backwards and it bounced off his head out of bounds--while Wright went crazy on the sidelines showed how they utilize that play and rely upon the refs to bail them out.

I honestly can't stand Jay Wright's style of play--total slop house basketball that depends on the refs not blowing their whistle every possession, giving them free reign to foul indiscriminately 85% of possessions, where they aren't whistled. That the refs allow it in general is a black mark on college basketball.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

better than totally blaming the refs..shows a bit of weakness

Oh, COME ON now.

 

[Cowtown]

In all honesty with as inconsistent as officiating is anymore id almost like to see them change the dq foul limits as well as when teams are in the bonus. Kill off the 1 and 1 go to 10 fouls for the bonus and use nba like rules for under 2 minutes left.

Agreed, the one-and-one is the most asinine, profoundly obtuse rule in the college game today. It exists only because coaches refuse to vote it out. After all, it rewards rough play, which is easier to teach than skill.

 

[Eagles20]

Oh, COME ON now.

tissues??