Getting pretty sick of the double technicals when we answer back in kind. If it's not a tech when they do it, why is it a technical for us when we do the same thing in response. One of the refs ended up shoving a Fordham player who was still aggressive after a call was made. Jeeebuss.... What's going on here?
Nothing was as bad as the outcome-based officiating in the last regular season game we played in the MVC (the OT loss at UNI that gave the regular season title to UNI while also dropping us to 4th seeding at Arch Madness). But wow, the officiating so far in the A-10 is far below average for the MVC. Late whistles, the deference to athleticism, the trash-talking, the attention-seeking refs, explaining to one side and not the other, confusing calls like the one in Dayton with the foul and double technicals, etc. Letting the physical stuff go the way they did in this game was really bad, and clearly favored Fordham.
If we made our free throws and hit an average number of threes, we would have won this game. But our guards got beat up, bruised, and bloodied (not exaggerating, bloodied), just trying to get the ball across the time line on every possession. The double technical should have been a single technical... I was 30 feet away from it and saw it developing. The no-call on the foul on the Golden dunk followed by a basket on the other end was a four-point swing.
To be fair, I was sitting at the opposite baseline from the Golden play, and I haven't yet watched my recording of the game. Over on my baseline, I saw Alston get elbowed in the face, just short of mugging by the Fordham defenders, and a lot of under-the-radar elbows, pushes and smacks across the head on drives to the basket.
When I say deference to athleticism, what I mean is allowing quick guards to get away with offensive fouls and sometimes travel violations because they're doing it quick... the Golden play... VCU gets a lot of them, DeLoach in particular... moving screens galore... anything goes on trash talk and unsportsmanlike gestures...
This league can't expect to win big non-con games and postseason games if their "best" teams have been coddled, the officiating style adjusted to favor them, deference given to a particular style of play, etc. That's what happened to the Horizon League during the LeCrone era, and they sank into irrelevancy.
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