#3 Florida vs #4 TSUN (ov/un 132.5) Sun 2:20 CBS

[billmac91]

my biggest beef with the tournament is essentially the reason why Michigan is the lone Big 10 team remaining, IMO. Michigan is really the only team in the Big 10 that benefits from officiating in the tournament. And the reason they benefit is because they play [Mark May]ty, non-physical defense. Tighter called games help their offense and are a non-issue on defense because they don't play hard defense.

We struggled all tournament with tightly called games. MSU struggled horribly against Duke. Wisconsin never adjusted against Ole Miss. Indiana just sucked against Cuse so they don't fall into this.

Anyways, I mentioned in another thread that I thought Michigan would benefit the most from getting into tournament play because of how games are called. If the NCAA was smart they'd utilize a national referee system where leagues don't have a particular brand of play allowed. It sucks watching a guy like Aaron Craft play amazing defense all year only to be in foul trouble every tournament game and picking up ticky tack garbage. And its annoying to see one of the Big 10's worst defensive teams be rewarded for their style of non-existant defense.

 

[ScriptOhio]

lol how empty that place is

And a lot of work goes into converting the stadium for basketball

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjesXiGAhKI"]Cowboys Stadium Basketball Time-Lapse (NBA All Star Game 2010 Dallas) - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Zem]

Congrats to scUM, despite their [Mark May]ty defense (good points, but...), which held the Buckeyes to 56 in Columbus. I personally find it more satisfying to see UF/SEC go down in flames. It's one thing to laugh at a Buckeye tourney exit after splitting the conference games, not winning the conference tournament, and losing in football. But it's another thing entirely when it's from fans of a team that didn't play the Bucks. Maybe next year, we'll get an OSU-scUM final.

 

[Jake]

my biggest beef with the tournament is essentially the reason why Michigan is the lone Big 10 team remaining, IMO. Michigan is really the only team in the Big 10 that benefits from officiating in the tournament. And the reason they benefit is because they play [Mark May]ty, non-physical defense. Tighter called games help their offense and are a non-issue on defense because they don't play hard defense.

We struggled all tournament with tightly called games. MSU struggled horribly against Duke. Wisconsin never adjusted against Ole Miss. Indiana just sucked against Cuse so they don't fall into this.

Anyways, I mentioned in another thread that I thought Michigan would benefit the most from getting into tournament play because of how games are called. If the NCAA was smart they'd utilize a national referee system where leagues don't have a particular brand of play allowed. It sucks watching a guy like Aaron Craft play amazing defense all year only to be in foul trouble every tournament game and picking up ticky tack garbage. And its annoying to see one of the Big 10's worst defensive teams be rewarded for their style of non-existant defense.

I hate TSUN as much as the next Buckeye - and the last 24 hours of this tournament have flat out sucked - but that just reeks of sour grapes.

The Wolverines played one of their best games of the season in the Elite Eight while our Buckeyes, unfortunately, played one of their worst. :ohwell:

 

[osugrad21]

They deserved it. Outplayed and outhustled UF all day.

 

[ScriptOhio]

I hate TSUN as much as the next Buckeye - and the last 24 hours of this tournament have flat out sucked - but that just reeks of sour grapes.

The Wolverines played one of their best games of the season in the Elite Eight while our Buckeyes, unfortunately, played one of their worst. :ohwell:

That just about says it all.

:osu:

 

[billmac91]

I hate TSUN as much as the next Buckeye - and the last 24 hours of this tournament have flat out sucked - but that just reeks of sour grapes.

The Wolverines played one of their best games of the season in the Elite Eight while our Buckeyes, unfortunately, played one of their worst. :ohwell:

It's not sour grapes at all...I was rooting for Michigan and I'm glad we have a Big 10 representative.

But it's insanely frustrating to watch our guys have to adjust to the officials every tournament. And it isn't just the Buckeyes. Physical defense isn't a good thing come March unless it's the Big 10 tournament. I think it'd be fun to listen to Craft, off the record, discuss what it is like to play perimeter defense using a Sun Belt crew. And it's why I thought Michigan would do really well...tightly called games favor them because they aren't contesting on the primary ball-handler like OSU and MSU do. It favors them as a team an incredible amount.

I'm not knocking Michigan because maybe the Big 10 needs to reevaluate how they call games. I'm saying Michigan isn't physical so they don't have to worry about excessive whistles they aren't used too. Teams like MSU and OSU have to adjust a shitload just to avoid fouling out 15 minutes into the game.

If they had national referees, you wouldn't need to worry about Craft picking up cheap fouls at half-court because he'd know where the line has been drawn.

 

[germ]

It's all about the kid from Columbus Ohio, Trey Burke makes Michigan go.

Sad to see him go, but the kid is ready for the pros. The tourney is all about match ups, Michigan did get some really good match ups, with Kansas being an extremely tough one, one they should have lost.

Michigan and OSU are two very good programs now, and a lot of fun to watch.

 

[jwinslow]

They deserved it. Outplayed and outhustled UF all day.

Which is a fascinating comparison to the B1G season. This is where I think a legitimate complaint about B1G officiating can be made.

Now I think OSU & MSU's problems were much deeper than officiating, but it is very interesting to see a fairly soft Michigan team become the strongest willed team in the tournament, while OSU & MSU suddenly become the passive squads.

Anyone can miss baskets, and maybe it all snowballed, but even when they aren't hitting baskets, usually Sparty defends and crashes the glass, while OSU plays great defense to spark their offense. Neither did anything of the sort (OSU for 25 min, MSU for most of the game).

 

[Coqui]

my biggest beef with the tournament is essentially the reason why Michigan is the lone Big 10 team remaining, IMO. Michigan is really the only team in the Big 10 that benefits from officiating in the tournament. And the reason they benefit is because they play [Mark May]ty, non-physical defense. Tighter called games help their offense and are a non-issue on defense because they don't play hard defense.

We struggled all tournament with tightly called games. MSU struggled horribly against Duke. Wisconsin never adjusted against Ole Miss. Indiana just sucked against Cuse so they don't fall into this.

Anyways, I mentioned in another thread that I thought Michigan would benefit the most from getting into tournament play because of how games are called. If the NCAA was smart they'd utilize a national referee system where leagues don't have a particular brand of play allowed. It sucks watching a guy like Aaron Craft play amazing defense all year only to be in foul trouble every tournament game and picking up ticky tack garbage. And its annoying to see one of the Big 10's worst defensive teams be rewarded for their style of non-existant defense.

And all that should have gone out in the first round of 64. After that, you should know the type of officiating.

 

[germ]

It's not sour grapes at all...I was rooting for Michigan and I'm glad we have a Big 10 representative.

But it's insanely frustrating to watch our guys have to adjust to the officials every tournament. And it isn't just the Buckeyes. Physical defense isn't a good thing come March unless it's the Big 10 tournament. I think it'd be fun to listen to Craft, off the record, discuss what it is like to play perimeter defense using a Sun Belt crew. And it's why I thought Michigan would do really well...tightly called games favor them because they aren't contesting on the primary ball-handler like OSU and MSU do. It favors them as a team an incredible amount.

I'm not knocking Michigan because maybe the Big 10 needs to reevaluate how they call games. I'm saying Michigan isn't physical so they don't have to worry about excessive whistles they aren't used too. Teams like MSU and OSU have to adjust a [Mark May]load just to avoid fouling out 15 minutes into the game.

If they had national referees, you wouldn't need to worry about Craft picking up cheap fouls at half-court because he'd know where the line has been drawn.

Even if you have national referees, they all call a different style of game.

The refs did not hit 6 three pointers today

It's all about the match ups, look what Louisville did to duke.

 

[billmac91]

Even if you have national referees, they all call a different style of game.

The refs did not hit 6 three pointers today

It's all about the match ups, look what Louisville did to duke.

Louisville and Syracuse both play zones. They're physical, but it's a different type of ball pressure. And a majority of the fouls OSU got called on were for bumping players on cuts. Louisville and Cuse are just a different animal. In zone defense you aren't bumping every time a guy runs through your area. Cuse is all about forcing bad outisde shots while Louisville is all about setting traps on poor ball handlers. Ville gets questionable calls on them with some frequency based on the aggressiveness of their traps, but again its much different than the half-court man defense OSU & MSU run. OSU & MSU were taking fouls on run of the mill sets where a guy cuts across the paint and we nick him. Or Craft is applying ball pressure. Or Ravenal cuts across the paint for a rebound on a free-throw. Our fouls weren't called out of aggressiveness, but just our run of the mill, everyday defense. It's difficult to adjust how you play defense day in-day out. I think it'd be easier to live with if the calls were out of over-aggressiveness or guys trying to make plays.

But conference referees really do tend to call games a certain way. Theres already talk about how Cuse and Pitt will adjust to the ACC based on styles. There were games in the NCAA tournament where Craft was essentially negated defensively because he was not allowed to put pressure on the ball, Wichita St game included. Refs just felt compelled to blow the whistle every time a ball handler had difficulty advancing the ball forward against pressure one on one D.

Again, I'm not trying to rip Michigan. They're avery good team and one of the best offensive teams in teh country. My entire point has been that the tournament favored Michigan more than any other Big 10 team because the games are called in a way conducive to their style. They're soft defensively so they didn;t have to adjust anything about their game. MSU and OSU were in foul trouble from the tip in these games.

To be 100% truthful in all of this, if you took the average crew in the NCAA Tournament and made them Big 10 conference officials, Michigan is easily the regular season champion. Easily. If Aaron Craft can't breath on Trey Burke accross the timeline, it's death. Aaron Craft wasn't allowed to play anyone tight this entire tournament. In my eyes it was a joke, but nationally, people hate Big 10 style of play so maybe the Big 10 needs to adjust how they call games. That, or teams like MSU and OSU need to refrain from Big 10 style of play and focus on team defense more conducive to the NCAA tournament even if it is damaging in Big 10 play.

Congrats to Michigan and thanks for repping the Big 10. I'm not trying to knock anybody or any team. It's just an honest observation about how the Big10 calls games vs. the rest of the country. Not having to deal with teams that can clutch, bump, and grind for 40 minutes plays right into Michigan's hands. For such a great offesnive team it has to be a breath of fresh air not being knocked off cuts all game long. Defensively it doesn't impact them at all because they're soft on that side of the ball. They don't do any of that anyways so they're just playing their normal game. In my mind, their softness defensively, has actually helped them because while most Big 10 teams struggled with adjusting to how the games are called, Michigan has just gone about their business, scored with great efficiency, and is playing well.

 

[Jagdaddy]

Louisville and Syracuse both play zones. They're physical, but it's a different type of ball pressure. And a majority of the fouls OSU got called on were for bumping players on cuts. Louisville and Cuse are just a different animal. In zone defense you aren't bumping every time a guy runs through your area. Cuse is all about forcing bad outisde shots while Louisville is all about setting traps on poor ball handlers. Ville gets questionable calls on them with some frequency based on the aggressiveness of their traps, but again its much different than the half-court man defense OSU & MSU run. OSU & MSU were taking fouls on run of the mill sets where a guy cuts across the paint and we nick him. Or Craft is applying ball pressure. Or Ravenal cuts across the paint for a rebound on a free-throw. Our fouls weren't called out of aggressiveness, but just our run of the mill, everyday defense. It's difficult to adjust how you play defense day in-day out. I think it'd be easier to live with if the calls were out of over-aggressiveness or guys trying to make plays.

But conference referees really do tend to call games a certain way. Theres already talk about how Cuse and Pitt will adjust to the ACC based on styles. There were games in the NCAA tournament where Craft was essentially negated defensively because he was not allowed to put pressure on the ball, Wichita St game included. Refs just felt compelled to blow the whistle every time a ball handler had difficulty advancing the ball forward against pressure one on one D.

Again, I'm not trying to rip Michigan. They're avery good team and one of the best offensive teams in teh country. My entire point has been that the tournament favored Michigan more than any other Big 10 team because the games are called in a way conducive to their style. They're soft defensively so they didn;t have to adjust anything about their game. MSU and OSU were in foul trouble from the tip in these games.

To be 100% truthful in all of this, if you took the average crew in the NCAA Tournament and made them Big 10 conference officials, Michigan is easily the regular season champion. Easily. If Aaron Craft can't breath on Trey Burke accross the timeline, it's death. Aaron Craft wasn't allowed to play anyone tight this entire tournament. In my eyes it was a joke, but nationally, people hate Big 10 style of play so maybe the Big 10 needs to adjust how they call games. That, or teams like MSU and OSU need to refrain from Big 10 style of play and focus on team defense more conducive to the NCAA tournament even if it is damaging in Big 10 play.

Congrats to Michigan and thanks for repping the Big 10. I'm not trying to knock anybody or any team. It's just an honest observation about how the Big10 calls games vs. the rest of the country. Not having to deal with teams that can clutch, bump, and grind for 40 minutes plays right into Michigan's hands. For such a great offesnive team it has to be a breath of fresh air not being knocked off cuts all game long. Defensively it doesn't impact them at all because they're soft on that side of the ball. They don't do any of that anyways so they're just playing their normal game. In my mind, their softness defensively, has actually helped them because while most Big 10 teams struggled with adjusting to how the games are called, Michigan has just gone about their business, scored with great efficiency, and is playing well.

Agree. That said, IMO, as in football, college hoops is becoming all about being up tempo and applying pressure. The Big Ten in general needs to play at a faster tempo to have high end success in the tournament, and I would very much like to see Thad mix in more real full-court trap pressure in the game plan in the future.

To me basketball is a very simple game in which the single most important thing is getting more easy shots than the opponent: There are three main ways to do that: Force turnovers, break, and finish; crash the offensive glass; or take the ball hard to the rack and shoot a ton of free throws: In general, the BIG isn't very good at any of those things, MSU's glass crashing excluded: I'd note that MSU got their ring when they did that AND ran like hell and have come up a little short just doing the one. The exception to the tempo rule is to have a defensive eraser in the paint like Anthony Davis or Greg Oden . . . and there aren't a ton of those around.

 

[germ]

Louisville and Syracuse both play zones. They're physical, but it's a different type of ball pressure. And a majority of the fouls OSU got called on were for bumping players on cuts. Louisville and Cuse are just a different animal. In zone defense you aren't bumping every time a guy runs through your area. Cuse is all about forcing bad outisde shots while Louisville is all about setting traps on poor ball handlers. Ville gets questionable calls on them with some frequency based on the aggressiveness of their traps, but again its much different than the half-court man defense OSU & MSU run. OSU & MSU were taking fouls on run of the mill sets where a guy cuts across the paint and we nick him. Or Craft is applying ball pressure. Or Ravenal cuts across the paint for a rebound on a free-throw. Our fouls weren't called out of aggressiveness, but just our run of the mill, everyday defense. It's difficult to adjust how you play defense day in-day out. I think it'd be easier to live with if the calls were out of over-aggressiveness or guys trying to make plays.

But conference referees really do tend to call games a certain way. Theres already talk about how Cuse and Pitt will adjust to the ACC based on styles. There were games in the NCAA tournament where Craft was essentially negated defensively because he was not allowed to put pressure on the ball, Wichita St game included. Refs just felt compelled to blow the whistle every time a ball handler had difficulty advancing the ball forward against pressure one on one D.

Again, I'm not trying to rip Michigan. They're avery good team and one of the best offensive teams in teh country. My entire point has been that the tournament favored Michigan more than any other Big 10 team because the games are called in a way conducive to their style. They're soft defensively so they didn;t have to adjust anything about their game. MSU and OSU were in foul trouble from the tip in these games.

To be 100% truthful in all of this, if you took the average crew in the NCAA Tournament and made them Big 10 conference officials, Michigan is easily the regular season champion. Easily. If Aaron Craft can't breath on Trey Burke accross the timeline, it's death. Aaron Craft wasn't allowed to play anyone tight this entire tournament. In my eyes it was a joke, but nationally, people hate Big 10 style of play so maybe the Big 10 needs to adjust how they call games. That, or teams like MSU and OSU need to refrain from Big 10 style of play and focus on team defense more conducive to the NCAA tournament even if it is damaging in Big 10 play.

Congrats to Michigan and thanks for repping the Big 10. I'm not trying to knock anybody or any team. It's just an honest observation about how the Big10 calls games vs. the rest of the country. Not having to deal with teams that can clutch, bump, and grind for 40 minutes plays right into Michigan's hands. For such a great offesnive team it has to be a breath of fresh air not being knocked off cuts all game long. Defensively it doesn't impact them at all because they're soft on that side of the ball. They don't do any of that anyways so they're just playing their normal game. In my mind, their softness defensively, has actually helped them because while most Big 10 teams struggled with adjusting to how the games are called, Michigan has just gone about their business, scored with great efficiency, and is playing well.

Craft is a master at defending and Big Ten officals know him, which means he gets calls that go his way. I do agree with your assessment.