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Are we allowed to use it as an excuse if we win?

I am surprised it hasn't been mentioned yet, but both Greg and Jeff both led their teams with 21 points last night as The Grizzlies beat the Bucks by 20.

I have always been an immense fan of your work, but this piece seems to connect at a visceral level.

I initially thought that we might have got the benefit of swallowed whistles in the last two minutes, but in reviewing the video I don't think that is true. Both of the steals - LJ's against the sideline and Kaleb's at half court were clean and the rest of the contact - by both teams - resulted in fouls.

Simply put, NO.

I took the opportunity to rewatch the game and took copious notes.
My conclusions:
If anything, the refereeing was worse than I thought. Upon careful review, Georgetown had at least 19 calls (fouls called/not called and other violations called/not called) go against it, while, generously, Creighton had room for maybe four complaints. Moreover, two of Creighton’s potential complaints – both taking place in the final two minutes – have mitigating circumstances.
Interestingly, 10 of the questionable calls from a Hoya standpoint took place in the first half, but none of those calls was ridiculous. While watching in real time, I had the sense in the first half that we weren’t getting a lot of calls but that the calls or non-calls were not egregious.

The second half was a different story. There were very clearly 7 ridiculous calls that went against the Hoyas. In order:
-Zierden, caught well under the basket while a Xavier shot is in the air, launches himself out of bounds and is rewarded with a foul on a Hoya.
-DSR is called for an offensive foul with his arm maybe 3 inches from his body. Against this standard, Grayson Allen would have fouled out in the first five minutes of our game against Duke.
-Groselle clears out the Hoya defender under the basket with 6 feet of moving screen, allowing an amazingly open layup – no call.
-Jesse is called for a moving pick because, apparently, Watson is small.
-Jesse’s fifth foul, about which nothing more needs to be said.
-LJ’s box out of Cole “contort your body like you’ve been shot” Huff.
-Trey Mourning is called for a moving screen – minus the movement – complete with another Zierden flop.

One can only imagine how frustrated Jessie must have felt. He fouled out in 10 minutes of playing time and should have reasonably expected to have had only one or two fouls based on his play.

In watching the game in real time, I thought that the refs had maybe put away their whistles during the comeback. After further review I don’t think that I was initially correct. First, both LJ’s and Kaleb’s steals were clean. And Marcus’s block of the last shot was clearly not a foul. That leaves two calls with which Creighton might take issue.
-The out of bounds call on DSR’s free throw miss. Initially I thought that it went out on us and that we had caught a break. In rewatching it 5 or 6 times it would appear to have been a true 50/50 ball.
-The final foul call on Watson. There was very clearly a foul on the play, but that foul was committed before Watson touched DSR. Obviously it helped us that Watson was not on the floor for the final 6 seconds.
Other observations.

Xavier went 4 for 21 for three. Of their 17 misses, I only count 7as being open 3s. We went 6 for 21 with 10 open misses.

I can’t remember when I have ever seen a team so happy – and so happy with each other – after a mid-season win.

Our second half team defense on Watson was quite good. Yes he got to the rim a few times but we turned him over a bunch.

Team that would not pay Khalid El-Amin 76
Team that Khalid El-Amin played for 66

Nominee for post of the year

Possible/Probable cancellation?

www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/01/19/east_coast_blizzard_will_impact_washington_new_york_boston.html