Games of Interest 2/23

[burghoya]

Nova vs. Cincy
JMU vs ODU
Navy vs American
Soupers vs. Hatters (aka Campbell vs. Stetson)
Fairfield vs. Manhattan
Oregon vs USC

and if ya don't know, now ya know

[CO_Hoya]

VU-Cinci 2 pt. game with 3 minutes left . . .

[CO_Hoya]

Ughh. Cinci loses w/ 4 secs left blowing a defensive assignment on an inbounds play.
VU 74 - Cinci 72

[Joe Hoya]

Catfight!!

Wild 74, Bear 72

[SFHoya99]

For anyone who thinks officiating can't decide a game, you should've watched that Cincy-Nova game. Someone called Ed Hightower a good ref earlier this year. Not this game. He and his crew were utter crap. From one of Foye's opening shots, where he airballed it two feet in front of Hightower -- no contact -- but fouled called to a ridiculously bad charge call on Downey at the end, they were atrocious. Every call went Nova's way unless blood was drawn. And yet still Cincy only lost by two.

[RockawayHoya]

Agreed, SF. That Downey charge especially was utter BS. As I watch Nova more and more it definitely looks like they are starting to get the benefit of the calls in every game they play in, home or away. Obviously they are still very talented and an elite team, but it's a shame to send the Cinci kids home with a loss when they were clearly the better team tonight.

Cinci at SHU this weekend becomes an NCAA elimination game (assuming Cinci can't get by WVU).

Fairfield loses a huge opportunity to give us a boost. JMU/Navy get smoked, and Stetson pulls out another win. Ducks up 3 at half at USC.

[SFHoya99]

Don't worry. Oregon will lose in the final seconds. It is what they do.

[CO_Hoya]

How was that charge on Downey "ridiculous"? Fat Bastard, err, Majerus agreed it was a charge, and the Nova kid definitely had his feet set. I only saw 1 replay, so maybe it was a bit of a flop, but it was hard to tell from the angle I saw (straight on).

Otherwise, didn't watch all of the game, but it sure did seem that Lowry and Foye always get the call driving to the rim.

[GIGAFAN99]

No way it was a charge.

And as for the announcers, Bill Raftery is one of my favorites. But he had to act like 'Nova travelled last year against UNC. The announcers don't want to start anything when a favorite gets a call.

[SFHoya99]

Majerus was wrong.

Clark was late. He was also leaving his feet when Downey made contact. Majerus was awful on this: "He wasn't trying to jump" just as the replay shows Clarks heels coming off the ground.

There were lots of awful calls. Lowry drew a charge when his feet were practically on the baseline. On another drive, Lowry elbowed James White in the chest, and they called White for a foul. My aforementioned Foye airball. Oh, and Nova outrebounded Cincy because on about 50% of the rebounds one of their guards would hold Hicks down by his shoulder. I saw it happen three times right in front of Hightower and he never once called it. It was really near constant.

I started out the game rooting neutrally. I wanted Cincy to win b/c I'd like to see the BE get at least eight schools, if not nine. I wanted Nova to win b/c it's a "basketball" school versus a "football" school. But Hightower and Co. were soooo awful I ended up rooting for Cincy.

[RockawayHoya]

That White foul was crucial, if it was the one that gave him 4 with almost 9 minutes left. He had to sit out awhile for that during a key time in the game.

The Nova guards get away with murder, and it's just not our game. Cinci had to deal with it, too, at home. I just hope to God we get a decent crew for Saturday. If I see Higgins or Hess there I'm going to be ticked.

[CO_Hoya]

I'd argue about the charge call some more, but I just read YB's last post in the ballroom dancing thread, and I've completely lost my train of thought.

Wow!!!

[RBHoya]

I agree, the Nova guards really get a lot of close calls and the refs tend to miss their hands during their "aggressive man defense".

Anyway... So I guess if I go over to the Nova board, I should be seeing tons of posts about how they are never going to win it all. They almost just lost to a borderline tournament team. If they play like that in the tournament, they're finished. Their team is obviously not that good. They're beating Cincinatti at the last second, they beat Notre Dame at the last second... I mean, this team obviously just isn't good enough.

Because you know those are the kind of posts we'd have after this game. People nitpicking, whining, bitching about all the mistakes we made rather than celebrating a road win.

Yet somehow I go to the Nova board, and people are actually HAPPY that they won the game rather than whining about how horrible their team is and pessimistically saying "if we play this way against X, we'll get killed". It's really an unbelievable sight--people actually being happy after winning a game. What a novel concept!

[MCIGuy]

That was a legitimate call. It was a charge. Clarke got there in time unlike his teammate Lowry who gets the benefit of getting charge calls to go in his favor even though he's always late and/or sliding. Finally a Nova player earned it.

I didn't see most of the second half and therefore was shocked to see that Cincy went to the free throw line much more than Nova. But what I saw of the first half was a joke in terms of all the calls Nova got. On a UConn board a poster, after watching the Gtown-Nova game, wrote that Villanova is the Duke of the Big East because the refs favor them. He wrote the Nova guards can get away with murder on defense but as soon as an opposing team player touches them a whistle is blown. Also mentioned that the refs won't allow opposing bigs to do any bumping in the paint while allowing Nova's guards to hack away. I guess that's what a few of the psoters on this forum were complaing of.

[RockawayHoya]

mciguy said:

That was a legitimate call. It was a charge. Clarke got there in time unlike his teammate Lowry who gets the benefit of getting charge calls to go in his favor even though he's always late and/or sliding. Finally a Nova player earned it.

Clarke did get there in time, but he left his feet (as SF pointed out). You can't leave your feet and draw a charge unless the offensive player extends an arm out (which Downey didn't).

[RockawayHoya]

And, the Ducks miraculously hold on for the road win at USC.