officiating

[Marty McFly]

I'm curious if anyone has done any objective analysis on officiating and which teams get "home cooking" versus who gets "jobbed". What I am really interested in knowing is whether this is mere perception, or if the old saying "we have to beat them AND the refs" rings true. I know Duke is the example everyone is going to trot out, but do the numbers bear that out? Is it style of play, or does the human element truly have more of an impact than it should. I am not interested in point shaving, or other nefarious elements that might skew the data.

 

[tbonezone]

"jobbed " is always going to be subjective not objective. depends on which color you wear.

 

[Marty McFly]

true, I was using those terms for more of an illustrative purpose. Clearly what side you root for can skew your perception of events.

 

[dollarbill44]

Think McFly (sorry, I had to). We all get jobbed. It does seem like we get jobbed more often than not. I think style of play is to blame, because we aren't real aggressive on offense and our players put themselves in poor position a lot of times, like charging straight at a 3pt shooter.

 

[RF2044]

There is no doubt that in college basketball certain teams get a much higher degree of home cooking from the refs than others do, on a consistent basis.

 

[tbonezone]

There is no doubt that in college basketball certain teams get a much higher degree of home cooking from the refs than others do, on a consistent basis.

that's your opinion not fact. let's see your "objective analysis ". sure all of the NCAA would like to know

 

[OrangeDW]

I'm curious if anyone has done any objective analysis on officiating and which teams get "home cooking" versus who gets "jobbed". What I am really interested in knowing is whether this is mere perception, or if the old saying "we have to beat them AND the refs" rings true. I know Duke is the example everyone is going to trot out, but do the numbers bear that out? Is it style of play, or does the human element truly have more of an impact than it should. I am not interested in point shaving, or other nefarious elements that might skew the data.

Those years when we had guards that attacked the basket(like Flynn, Triche, MCW, Devendorf, etc.), I thought we often got the short end of the stick. Other teams would undercut our guys and we got a ton of charges called on us, meanwhile we’ve never played that style of defense(other than Fab), so it felt like offensive fouls were like 90/10 in favor of the opponent, for years.

 

[RF2044]

that's your opinion not fact. let's see your "objective analysis ". sure all of the NCAA would like to know

I didn't realize that I needed "objective analysis" to express an opinion on a message board.

If you disagree with that opinion, then I'd suggest that you watch more college basketball, and then rethink your objection. Home court advantage is real, and disparate for different teams.

 

[Marty McFly]

Home court advantage is real, and disparate for different teams.

I tend to agree with this. It seems to me, we lack getting that advantage more often than not. Far too often it feels as though there are two games being called, one for the other team, and one for our guys. I'm sure that has played into some of the losses this season.

 

[Tom K.]

Does CJ Fair's charge call go our way if that game is in the Dome?

Something that has irritated me for a long time is oblivious home court fans who make themselves look dumb by continuing to boo referees after a replay has given clear evidence of a correct call or overturned call against them. Cheer for your team, but be smart about it.

 

[kingtidge]

There is no doubt that in college basketball certain teams get a much higher degree of home cooking from the refs than others do, on a consistent basis.

What comes around goes around... Loved to see Dixon and Pitt get called in the tourney for all those hand check mugging no-calls they wouldn't get during the regular season... Seems like the refs wouldn't allow them to mug blue bloods from other conferences when it mattered... And that meant they usually got jettisoned the 1st weekend.

That said, pitino's Louisville teams always seemed to get a way with it in the tourney... Tho they were better at it than Pitt.

 

[Eric15]

Whenever I see a sports fan of any team complain about officiating, I respectfully ask them “can you name some examples of bad calls that benefited your team?” And if they are tongue tied after that question, then they have essentially admitted their bias.

 

[tbonezone]

follow any game in a chatroom and 80% of the posts are about bad calls. then log in to the opponents board and it's the exact same thing. it's human nature. and this is my opinion not fact.

 

[Eric15]

If you polled every single sports fan in America, and asked them on a very superficial/emotional level "does your team receive a disproportionately negative number of officiating calls?" I'm guessing you will get an overwhelmingly number of "yes" responses. Powerful teams probably think they're targeted by refs because they're powerful, and weaker teams think powerful teams are given preferential treatment. And there's nothing wrong with that. Complaining about officiating is one of the basic elements of sports fandom and it's how fans bond with each other.

But if you wanted to answer the question in an actually meaningful way (which is way more interesting than "eye tests"), you have to dig way deeper. I'm not sure if any scholarly research on this has ever been done, but a question like, "Does Duke get an unfair number of officiating calls?" is a very complicated question. You would have to look at every game they have played in the last 30-40 years, figure out what the normal standard deviation of how many more calls a team potentially gets per game because they're simply more talented/experienced to begin with, and control for all sorts of variables like home vs. away, the officials calling the game, ACC vs. non-ACC refs, rivalry vs. non-rivalry games, tourney vs. non-tourney, etc.

 

[calorange]

If you doubt refs would actively seek to achieve a certain outcome in a game, google "Game 6, 2002 NBA Western Conference Finals". If it's true in the NBA, then why would it not also be possible in other levels, or other sports?

 

[pfister1]

Our style of play has always been a finesse style and I think its a big part of why we always feel like we get "jobbed". We play a bunch of teams that believe in playing a physical bullying style with the knowledge that they'll take fouls or that they commit so many fouls that the referees will eventually stop calling them. I think that's a big part of why we feel the refereeing is inequitable.