Officiating dictated the outcome of this game

[tower912]

The inconsistent foul calls in the first half fueled ND's energy, as well as killing our defensive intensity, substitution pattern, and offensive flow.  It is impossible to press and damn tough to make any sort of run with so many valuable players in foul trouble.   And finally, why should shrekenstein, the uberfrosh think there would be repercussions for leveling McNeal from behind or punking Fitz going for a loose ball when the way the game has been called leads him to believe he can get away with it.    MU played poorly for the last 30 minutes of this game, with no one consistently able to hit shots, but you can't hit shots from the bench.   And that is where our offensive balance spent too much of the game due to foul trouble.

[MUCam]

...Foul trouble helped dictate the outcome of this game?

If so, I agree. If  not, then I disagree.

There were ticky tack fouls in the first half; no doubt about it. But, our players have to understand that tight officiating means back off a bit. Is that conducive to our style of play? Not at all, but it happens, and we have to adjust. I do not think that there were an exceptional number of "bad" calls in this game. We got ourselves into foul trouble and we paid for it. We have no depth at the guard positions, which really hurts when McNeal and Matthews got into trouble.

As for the Ogre's "hard" foul on McNeal, I don't take any exception to it. It was actually, fairly clean, with only slight body contact...and the officials called the foul. What transpired afterwards (ie. the standing and taunting) is a different matter.

[MUDPT]

I agree.  Many times on breaks you see guys just go up to stop a dunk and they injure somebody (see Posey, James).  Harangody was at least going for the ball.  And I don't understand the taunting.  He fouled the guy, it wasn't a clean block. 

By the way, ND didn't have any clean blocks today.

[tower912]

All any player wants is for the game to be called the same at both ends of the floor.   That way they can make the necessary adjustments to stay out of foul trouble.   This game was not called consistently.  Ergo.....

[TJ]

By the way, ND didn't have any clean blocks today.

Harangody's block on Matthews was clean.  His ensuing push of Matthews that got called as a foul on Matthews apparently for being pushed was not good, but the block was clean.

[Murffieus]

Officiating can't be blamed for this loss----ND beat us to death inside ! When you let a team score inside as ND did -----the odds are you lose!

[nycwarrior]

Gotta agree that you can't blame this on the refs.

We had no answer for their freshman big man. Our usually well-prepared team had no answer for a big guy who could only shoot with his right. Tough second half for Ooze. The drops and strips in the lane midway through hurt us when we still had a chance to win.

This team can be one of the most fun to watch teams that MU has fielded but their margin for error is razor thin. If they're not dominant on D and patient on the other side, they won't win. Taht simple. Even games against teams like South Florida are a challenge when you struggle for every bucket.

Pitt is all important. Get things rollin against the panthers and then win a couple in the Conference Tourney and we can get our swagger back. Fail to end strong and it doesn't seem likely that our dance will be a happy one.

[mviale]

I didnt have the opportunity to see the game, but the radio made it sound like our guys were holding back after some early foul trouble.   This always happens to us when Mcneil loses his intensity( MU 23- ND 10).  This allowed ND to get back into the game and fans exploded.  

I blame the refs.

[ChicosBailBonds]

Officiating can't be blamed for this loss----ND beat us to death inside ! When you let a team score inside as ND did -----the odds are you lose!

When you shoot 36%, that usually leads to a loss as well.  I think every game we have lost this year we have shot less than 40%.  If we shoot respectably, like 43%, we almost always win.

[Nukem2]

My only complaint is that refs let Harangody shoulder his way through people and use his hands and arms elbows to push people aside.  Those tactics are usually called fouls.  But, what can you do?

[🏀]

Goody was shouldering.

ND was thugging us.

We couldn't play tough D because we had 3 players with 4 fouls early in the second half.

Ooze was getting beaten up on the inside. Goody was getting his shots in there, I've never seen Ooze complain much but he was getting murdered.

DJ wasn't able to turn the corner on anyone because the refs continually failed to call a blocking or a hook until the second half.

It was very muchj poor officiating.

[77fan88warrior]

Remember these names.

Reggie Greenwood, Bryan Kersey, Paul Faia.[/size]

[MUCHI814]

I think this was the second poor officiating game in a row.  I was very unimpressed with John Cale's crew last week.  Both ways, I remember looking at my buddies even when Villanova would get called for fouls and everyone agreed that was no foul.  They talk about these guys as being highly respected officials but im not impressed.  They did the Georgetown/Pitt game right before the MU game and I thought there a shitload of bs calls in that game as well.  All in all I'm not impressed by these "respected" refs and I wont give them the benefit of the doubt.  I still wont blame our loss on the refs though, you never can, it's up to your players to make adjustments, they knew how that game was gonna be called within the first 5 minutes.

[77fan88warrior]

I couldn't agree more about Villanova game. The announcers were surprised by some calls and defended them by saying that two of them had worked final fours.