I just don’t love that officials allow certain coaches to vent to them throughout the game and they’re willing to listen (obviously I’m thinking of Izzo, but it goes well beyond him). “Working the officials” just should not be a thing!
Missed calls happen, inconsistencies in what is called/not called happen…but respect and accessibility shown from officials to coaches needs to always be 50-50. If it’s not, then they’re not doing their job appropriately.
EDIT - I just jumped into the live game thread and saw within the first 50 posts that many feel the same way about Izzo lol. My take is honestly not about just Tom. I’ve bolded the thing that just needs to be true, always.
You always knew a mid-to-late Beilein-era Michigan game was being poorly officiated when their opponent had a ton of (non-late game) FT attempts. Beilein teams were amazing at not fouling.
Using FT totals alone is a little lazy. But when the FT totals don’t align to a typical game those teams played, seem significantly skewed between the two teams, or seem to magically even out late in a half … Those are warning signs of bad officiating.
I have been a little off the grid and haven’t seen much live coverage. But I would echo the frustration around allowing obnoxious behavior from Izzo, Fran, Underwood, etc and then being quick to T up another coach or player for something benign.
I was at the game – Palestra lover here – and, frankly, I don’t think PSU fans have much to go on here. They did seem to legit commit 3 actual fouls in one possession. Then again the announcer said almost nothing the whole time and it’s an old arena with no replays on the scoreboard, so it was hard to follow at times.
Take the game at the Palestra … Penn State 362nd in offensive free throw rate. Purdue 1st in defensive free throw rate.
The low free throw totals in the PSU games are due to the fact that PSU is small, shoots a ton of threes and isn’t particularly good at getting fouled. Not because of the refs.
As much as I love old buildings like the Palestra, the lack of replay video on a scoreboard makes it really hard, and the arena announcer said really very little about what was going on. But I didn’t think it was crazy. Just another Big Ten slugfest in terms of how physical it was.
