The Holy Land of Hoops

I wanted to get this posted while Xavier has a couple of wins so that it doesn't appear to be sour grapes. And I'm a soccer referee, so most of the time I side with refs. I'm baffled tho!

Can some of the Big East veterans give me a feel for whether the refereeing that we are seeing is typical, and just not what we are used to? Or is this bunch of officials calling a completely different game than you are used to also?

Some examples:
- Hands straight up, and bigs are getting called for fouls over and over.
- Ridiculous touch-me fouls way out that don't impact the game whatsoever way out top.
- Complete melees at the end of the game. Refs don't want to "decide the game" but when they call nothing for two minutes, they are deciding a lot!

I suppose it's up to the teams to adjust to the way the officials call the game, but the game is sooooo slow now with all of the fouls, and much less fun.

League has always been very physical at the end of games. Let them play.

The early game touch fouls and the stupid defensive fouls on defenders with their hands straight up are more about the new overall officiating changes than traditional big east officiating.

Home team always gets the calls. Aways has been the case.

Thanks for the feedback... just very difficult to adjust to as a fan. The fouls make the game come to a standstill it seems.

Friarfan2 wrote:Home team always gets the calls. Aways has been the case.

We'll need to let the officials know that next time they are in the Cintas Center.

In the two Xavier games I've watched, they've been inconsistent, calling the game by the new rules for stretches of the game before reverting back to the old rules. It's like a yo-yo. Now, they've been fairly even-handed in their inconsistency, but it's a real pain to watch.

What I've been most frustrated by are two things: 1. Big guys standing straight up, arms straight up, and an offensive player plowing into them and getting the call. 2. Offensive guards extending their arms/elbows (sometimes a "chicken wing") and pushing a defender away, only to have a foul called on the defensive player. Under the old rules, the new rules, or any rules at all those are just really bad calls. Period.

OutlawWales wrote:What I've been most frustrated by are two things: 1. Big guys standing straight up, arms straight up, and an offensive player plowing into them and getting the call. 2. Offensive guards extending their arms/elbows (sometimes a "chicken wing") and pushing a defender away, only to have a foul called on the defensive player. Under the old rules, the new rules, or any rules at all those are just really bad calls. Period.

Amen! Officiating for league games has been questionable this season.

Are the current officials old Big East regulars or did those contracts go to the AAC?

JOPO wrote:

OutlawWales wrote:What I've been most frustrated by are two things: 1. Big guys standing straight up, arms straight up, and an offensive player plowing into them and getting the call. 2. Offensive guards extending their arms/elbows (sometimes a "chicken wing") and pushing a defender away, only to have a foul called on the defensive player. Under the old rules, the new rules, or any rules at all those are just really bad calls. Period.

Amen! Officiating for league games has been questionable this season.

Officiating as a whole is far worse than I've ever seen it. The same play could happen a few times, and get a different response each time.

BillikensWin wrote:

JOPO wrote:

OutlawWales wrote:What I've been most frustrated by are two things: 1. Big guys standing straight up, arms straight up, and an offensive player plowing into them and getting the call. 2. Offensive guards extending their arms/elbows (sometimes a "chicken wing") and pushing a defender away, only to have a foul called on the defensive player. Under the old rules, the new rules, or any rules at all those are just really bad calls. Period.

Amen! Officiating for league games has been questionable this season.

Officiating as a whole is far worse than I've ever seen it. The same play could happen a few times, and get a different response each time.

This. It's horrible.

The officiating has been bad for two reasons. One, they are calling too many ticky-tack fouls. That has been the way games have been called in other leagues in the past, in the refs have allowed a very physical style of play in the Big East up until this year. I mean players would get hammered and there would not only be a no call, but none was expected. Remember, the Big East actually utilized a six fould rule briefly in the 1990s. This probably has more to do with the new NCAA rules. Two, the calls are widely inconsistent - within games they are inconsistent and that is just horrendous.