Was that a phantom call on Jeff?

[ColumbiaHeightsHoya]

From my angle, the ref blew the whistle before the play even happened and Jeff got it clean. Let me know what you think.

[One]

I was watching at home in Chicago with the U of I commentators doing the game. Even they were questioning a couple of the fouls called on Green. At one point, the play-by-play guy sheepishly said something along the lines of "He must have gotten him with the body." It was obvious he didnt believe it either.

[GUHoya07]

The job by the officials last night was a disgrace to the game. Can't we just catch a break for once???

[ColumbiaHeightsHoya]

We are the only team that gets no help on our home court. Look at those calls on Sweetney a couple years ago against Duke at Duke and tell me those didn't change the momentum of that game.

[gtownhoosier]

I thought it was a fairly called game. Throughout the game, they let the hoyas and the illini play. There were a handful of times that fouls could have been called either way but weren't. Blaming the referees is just a lame excuse. I thought we played well but the better team won. It's just that simple.

[GUHoya07]

You obviously were not standing in the front row at the game. While it may not have made the difference in us winning the game and I dont like making excuses, some of those calls were ridiculous and caused a huge swing in momentum. If Jeff Green doesnt have to sit for 10 minutes in the first half I dont know if they would have closed the half on that run.

[hoyabinx]

gtownhoosier said:

I thought it was a fairly called game. Throughout the game, they let the hoyas and the illini play. There were a handful of times that fouls could have been called either way but weren't. Blaming the referees is just a lame excuse. I thought we played well but the better team won. It's just that simple.

The refs definately didn't lose the game for us, but they sure as hell kept us out of it. The charge call on Green (i think it was green) was absurd, the guy was clearly still moving. When Ross was clearly set they called a block giving the illini punk an and 1. It was the biggest discrepancy i think i have ever seen. Also, the illini guards were using their forearms as plows as they drove and there were no calls.

[Deleted]

Griping about officiating in a 15-point loss is, well......
I agree with some of it: Jeff's offensive foul in the first half, and "time-out" that Dee Brown got while falling out of bounds (I think that rule should change - if you want to call timeout while falling out of bounds, you can - but you get charged 2 timeouts), and Jeff's block was clean. That said, we still lost by 15. I know all about momentum, but something tells me we weren't hanging in that game for long no matter what....

[ColumbiaHeightsHoya]

No one is disputing that we definitely lost that game. I am just commenting on a couple of ridiculous calls. The result would have been the same, but damn!!!! How do we not get those calls on our court?

[Deleted]

Believe me, I got as frustrated as anyone with some of those calls - made me wish we had Tim Higgins in there at times.....in our building or not, Illinois is going to get the benefit of the doubt as the better team. I recall one foul in the second half where one of there big men went to the hoop and got an "and one". Problem was, none of our guys even bothered to contest the shot, so any contact was competely incidental. Total phantom call. But the kind of call you get when you're #1....

[HoyaFanNY]

that game was horribly officiated. the bad call on jeff. a bad call on a 3 pt play in the first half on a fast break. our guards were mauled by their big guys off our picks. those refs stunk.

[StPetersburgHoya (Inactive)]

It was a terribly officiated game. I don't think we would have won it if it was called in our favor - but that doesn't excuse the officials who are there to do a good job - not just a job that's good enough to not change the outcome of the game.

[YB]

This was a horribly officiated game. I sat in the front row- I was in position to know.

The problem is that it was not called evenly. They let Illinnoying get away with murder but did not let us get away with looking at their players funny.

I still think we'd have lost by 7-10, but it would have been much closer.

The refs gave Illinnoying #1 team calls, and did not do so evenly at all.

[lichoya68]

the refs did not call alot of illinois moving picks.. holding shirts shoving i thought jeff got a clean block but a friend who was watching on his computer dont ask me how that works said he got em with alot of body and hes more subjective than me so it was a foul

[One]

I'm sorry to have contributed to this thread with my comment on the Illinois TV coverage and the Green block. While that call on Green was iffy, the "charge" taken by Ross was nowhere close to a charge. He turned his entire body sideways before contact was made. And both teams' guards were prone to defending with their hands rather than their feet. Griping about refs in a 15 point loss is sour grapes. Refs preferential treatment of higher ranked teams is one of the things teams in our position have to overcome on their way to the top. Right or wrong, thats the way it is.

[YB]

One- I kind of disagree with you here. GU got called for lots of ticky-tack stuff. Illinnoying got a bunch of crucial calls that ennabled their 23-3 run.

In the end, we still likely lose. But it would be nice to see by how much if the game is called fairly.

[One]

There were ticky-tack fouls on both sides last night, as there are in every game. Its unfortunate for us that one or two of ours were called on our best, or at least most influential, player. Was that purposefully done by the refs? I doubt it. Would it have similarly effected Illinois? Again, probably not because of the depth of their talent. Hopefully we are headed in a direction where other teams will lament the fact that ticky tack calls cost them a chance to beat our highly ranked team. Its all part of the process. Besides, there were enough good things happening last night for us to focus on rather than lamenting refereeing decisions that ultimately didnt impact the outcome of the game

[One]

I'll also admit to my various biases here that I grew up an Illini fan before attending GU undergrad. So while rooting for the Hoyas, I had a different view of the game than that of a totally partisan Hoya fan.

[hoopsmccan]

Come on now YB, the game was called fair. The only call that was terrible was the Green block. There were a bunch of borderline calls that went both ways.

I think when you are in the arena, surrounded by fans who are upset at every call that goes against us, its easy to think that the refs did a terrible job. Watching the game on TV, with better viewing angles, you can see that the refs called a decent game. Also when you are at the games, you are surrounded by a bunch of sinners that drink alcohol and distract real fans from watching the game.

hm

[TrueHoyaBlue]

I didn't think there were a tough of bad calls, but there were three that stuck out to me:

1. The foul on the Jeff Green block, where the ref essentially blew the whistle before either player left the ground, and at which point there was definitely no contest.

2. The phantom timeout as the Illi player was about three steps out of bounds.

and

3. The Jon Wallace steal at the top of the key, after which he was mugged (and hugged) by one of the Illinois guards, leading to a clean layup.


The fact that these all happened in the middle of Illinois runs was crushing personally, but I understand it's all part of the game.