Welcome to our world, Washington

College Basketball48

Although I did not watch today’s North Carolina-Washington NCAA Tournament second round game, I followed it on my phone. Just by checking scores, the general trend of the game appeared to be one where Washington seemed to be in more ‘control’ throughout the afternoon as each hit of ‘refresh’ generated information where the Huskies were clearly in front (by 11, by 10, by 7, etc) or were close to being tied.

I didn’t need to watch the game to know what was going to happen. Since Carolina was playing in Charlotte in a big game, everyone on this side of the country knew exactly what to expect. And, it appears that (again) we were correct in letting decades of history to be our guide. I just feel sorry for the poor fans from Washington; I think they really thought they had a chance.

I just got home from church, lunch and some much needed quality family time this afternoon. I had my mind on doing ONE thing when I walked in the door before doing anything else — check the box score to see how many more free-throws Carolina shot than Washington? There was no reason to really watch the game — fouls/free throws were all I needed to know to come to a conclusion regarding Washington’s chances today.

So, I just clicked on the box score and lo and behold my ‘surprise’ to see that the amazing North Carolina Tar Heels played the ENTIRE GAME while committing only 9 fouls — in FORTY minutes of play. Not nine fouls – one just below the bonus – in a single half (which would still be pretty scarce); but UNC got whistled for only nine fouls for the ENTIRE GAME!? Washington, on the other hand…despite leading for much of the game…’committed’ 20 fouls throughout the afternoon.

In the end, the Tar Heels shot 23 free throws to Washington’s 7. Carolina shot in excess of 200% more free throws today than the Huskies. Will wonders ever cease?

How would I know that Carolina was going to shoot (significantly) more free throws than Washington during the afternoon? Really? You ask that? Oh…you must be visiting us from a Washington website. WELCOME!

Do me a favor — why don’t you check the box scores from this season and tell me the last three games that UNC shot less free throws than an opponent. I am dead serious. All you stat-heads leaf back through the archives and tell us about Carolina’s foul and free throw differentials this year and let’s prove that I don’t know what I am talking about.

And, don’t give me this crap about Carolina ‘going inside’ with the ball and therefore generating more fouls than the opponents. At the RBC Center in Raleigh last month, nobody could have gone inside with the ball more than NC State did to Tracy Smith…and, we all know how the ‘athletic’ Tyler Zeller was able to play almost 30 minutes without committing a foul after getting himself in early foul trouble. Amazing! Even when losing by 17 points last week in the ACC Championship against Duke, the Tar Heels found a way to shoot six more free throws (21) than the victorious Blue Devils (15). Old habits are hard to break.

Oh yea. It appears there were both a clock issue and a questionable no call on basket interference at the end of the the game where the officials bungled both calls in a manner that benefited North Carolina. You don’t say? There is little reason to jump too deep into just two plasy at the end of the game when throughout the game calls were made to favor Carolina every time Washington tried to pull away. (You don’t really have to ask how I would know that even though I didn’t watch the game?)

PS: Controversial end to the North Carolina vs Washington game also being discussed here.

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College Basketball

48 Responses to Welcome to our world, Washington

  1. BJD95 03/20/2011 at 9:25 PM #

    Lucky f-ing Holes. Marquette it is.

  2. Wulfpack 03/20/2011 at 9:29 PM #

    Lucky lucky. Now if UK beats The Ohio State, they truly are Irish.

  3. robertinraleigh 03/20/2011 at 9:47 PM #

    SFN: I deleted both your original and follow-up post, and we’ll both just start over.

  4. theghost 03/20/2011 at 10:03 PM #

    obscure fact: Todd Turner’s last job was AD at Washington, resigned in 2008. Wonder how deeply he was able to instill a culture of mediocrity, contempt for athletic success, and penchant for collapsing against the holes.

  5. robertinraleigh 03/20/2011 at 10:04 PM #

    Thanks! And for the record I am a State grad and fan.

  6. robertinraleigh 03/20/2011 at 10:10 PM #

    The Holes always get the breaks with more free throws, practical home games in Charlotte, refs making questionable calls and now they get Marquette instead of Syracuse. CBS must be loving all of these “coincidences”.

  7. camel77 03/20/2011 at 11:19 PM #

    Who supplies the time keeper for the tournament games, the host school (UNC-Charlotte), the arena, or the NCAA?

    The call was correct in that the clock doesn’t stop until the ref blows his whistle but the ref should have blown his whistle a second before he did. It is a major unjust iced that all avenues is not used to make sure everything is correct.

  8. werncstate 03/21/2011 at 2:30 AM #

    Let’s hope we hire a coach that can beat them by 15 so we can win by one. Brad Stevens.

  9. PackerInRussia 03/21/2011 at 7:34 AM #

    I was actually kind of surprised as I was watching the first half (and even some of the second half) that there weren’t more fouls called against Washington. It was weird to see someone make contact with a UNC player and not get whistled for a foul. It was like dropping an egg and it not cracking. Something just didn’t seem right. It must have been odd for the UNC players also to have to endure some contact without a whistle. They even called a UNC player for a hand check. They probably didn’t even know that it was considered a foul. I actually thought the refs must be calling it pretty fair and letting both teams play until I saw the stat towards the end of the first half: 9 to 1 or something like that. It’s a good thing they weren’t calling every little thing on the Huskies; UNC would have beat them by 20.

  10. packplantpath 03/21/2011 at 7:41 AM #

    I agree, Washington could have been called for more fouls. But, UNC should have been called for more to. Washington should have had a lot more “and 1” called in the first half. Zeller is a foul machine, but rarely gets called

    All a UNC player had to do was touch the paint and he was guaranteed a foul. Washington did nothing but drive to the paint in the first half and never got the foul when quite a few were pretty obvious.

    I only occasionally paid attention in the 2nd half and it seemed like Washington didn’t go inside as much the second half until the end of the game. Can’t say I blame them though.

  11. Howler 03/21/2011 at 7:56 AM #

    I see no way UNC gets by Ohio State. Carolina has been living dangerously for the past several games, and they won’t survive a big time team on a neutral floor. If they get down by double digits to the Buckeyes, there will be no comeback.

    I do think that the focus on the foul stats in the Washington game is bordering a bit on the paranoid. In my opinion, Carolina’s bigs are the tall, lanky types who prefer to step back and see if they can block shots rather than risk a lot of contact. I saw several plays against Washington where Henson took that approach, missed the block and gave up a score. But to his credit, he does get a lot of them, as we all know.

  12. freshmanin83 03/21/2011 at 8:53 AM #

    Tinfoil must be getting in short supply around some posters.

  13. MP 03/21/2011 at 12:35 PM #

    Ha, nice post freshman! Although a total mess, I think I know what you are saying.

  14. NCSU84 03/21/2011 at 3:08 PM #

    I agree with Howler – I am just not buying the conspriacy theory. Perhaps UNC players are “coached” not to foul or, better yet, “coached” how to foul without being caught. Perhaps their “coach” works the refs (much like K) to get calls his way. Perhaps their “coach” has earned the respect of the officials and therefore is listened to. Do you see a key word here?

  15. freshmanin83 03/21/2011 at 5:27 PM #

    Was it the word “to”?

  16. WolfpackDBD 03/21/2011 at 6:02 PM #

    I only caught the end of the game and did not have a DVR, so I havn’t been able to review what appeared to me as another bad no-call near the end of the game. Here is what I think I saw, would appreciate comments.

    On the in-bound play with about 5 or 6 seconds remaing, Henson was guarding the Washington player throwing the ball in. After jumping and tipping the ball, it appeared that part of Henson’s foot landed across the end line and out of bounds.

    My questions are: Did I see it correclty? Is there a rule against crowding and crossing the end lin? Is so, what is that rule? Is it normally enforced? If it did happen, it certainly affected the out come of the game as Henson was able to play taller.

    Thanks.

  17. MrPlywood 03/21/2011 at 9:13 PM #

    WolfpackDBD – I found these notes on officiating.com, the official forum.

    “A player inbounding the ball may move backward as far as the five-second time limit or space allows. If player moves outside the three-foot wide designated spot it is a violation, not travelling. In gymnasiums with limited space outside the sidelines and endlines, a defensive player may be asked to step back no more than three feet.”

    I think just about any NCAA game would qualify as having “limited space” on the endline with all the cheerleaders and assorted cameramen, so you’d think that the D would get set back 3 feet, because the O has limited room to move backward.

    As far as breaking the endline plane, the D can’t break the plane before the ball is thrown, but it’s OK if the D player breaks the plane after the ball is thrown. These notes apply:

    “The defender may not break the imaginary plane during a throwin until the ball has been released on a throw-in pass. If the defender breaks the imaginary plane during a throwin before the ball has been released on a throw-in pass, the defender’s team will receive a team warning, or if the team has already been warned for one of the four delay situations, this action would result in a team technical foul. If the defender contacts the ball after breaking the imaginary plane, it is a player technical foul and a team warning will be recorded. If the defender fouls the inbounding player after breaking the imaginary plane, it is an intentional personal foul, and a team warning will be recorded.

    “The inbounding player does not have a plane restriction, but has five seconds to release the ball and it must come directly onto the court. The ball can always be passed into the backcourt during a throwin. This situation is not a backcourt violation.”

  18. wufpup76 03/21/2011 at 10:48 PM #

    ^If Henson landed out of bounds (which I believe he did) that is a violation.

  19. msb42656 03/21/2011 at 11:32 PM #

    SFN: You don’t have to agree with us to stick around here — in fact, we encourage differing opinions, it’s fun — but you do have to be civil about it. Consider this a friendly warning.

  20. freshmanin83 03/22/2011 at 12:36 AM #

    Hmmm I am beginning to think that basketball teams conspire to win the game they are playing.

  21. MrPlywood 03/22/2011 at 12:40 AM #

    I know it would be a violation of he started from out of bounds (foot over the endline) but the rule says that the D can cross the plane once the ball has been released.

  22. MrPlywood 03/22/2011 at 12:45 AM #

    Along the lines of the blind WSJ bracket, wouldn’t it be interesting to have a “blindly” ref’d (pun not intended but it’s there) UNX game called by refs who didn’t know the teams, and with no team names or colors. Just basketball called by the rules.

  23. ADVENTUROO 03/22/2011 at 9:12 AM #

    Some obscure UNC Bashing Factoid. LT, the GREAT UNC Linebacker can NOW add an additional designation or title to his calling card…

    RSO (Registered Sex Offender)….

    http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/03/22/giants-star-taylor-sex-offender-designation/?test=latestnews

    This obviously will NOT get a lot of play in the local media or on the UNC Boards….

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