Anonymous Coach: Wisconsin Got Screwed in Title Game

Alright Wisconsin guys. Close your eyes on this one. An anonymous coach tells CBSSports.com’s Matt Norlander that Wisconsin got royally fucked in the title game and it’s not for the reason you think. No, we’re not talking about the controversial out of bounds call that gave the ball to Duke when it looked like the ball went off Justise Winslow’s fingers.

Instead we’re talking about how fouls are supposed to be called. Here’s the exact quote:

“I still don’t think they’re calling it the way they said they’re going to call it,” the coach said. “If there’s 100 calls a game, everyone’s gonna bitch, people are gonna foul out and it’s bad for TV. Go back to the national championship last year. If Wisconsin is allowed to play the way they did all year long in the Big Ten, they probably win the game, but the game was called tighter. Ask Bo Ryan. It was called differently then.”

I advise people don’t ask Bo Ryan that because he’ll probably punch you square in the face and then go back to doing whatever retired dudes do.

All in all that’s the biggest complaint with refs in college basketball. Between former players and coaches that I’ve talked with and those that Norlander talked to in this article, they all want the same thing. Consistency.

The biggest piece of evidence for this was the end of regulation between Kansas/Oklahoma. I had no problem with the over the back call (although they did miss a foul on the drive). Simply because if you call that foul in the first half (which the refs were doing) you don’t hold your whistle at the end of the game. The people who say ‘let the players decide the game.’ Well, the players are deciding the game too when there’s a foul call.

The big talk heading into this season though was the way games would be called along with the pace of play. The NCAA wanted to clean up the game and make it more watchable. Stats based on KenPom have given us the following. Points per game are up almost 8 percent, fouls are lower now than they were at this point the last two seasons and teams are committing less turnovers than the last four years. The biggest reason for the decrease in turnovers is the freedom of movement as Norlander says. Teams don’t want to commit fouls, therefore they aren’t pressing on defense as much and getting in the shorts of the ballhandler.

It’s important basketball maintains this sort of play through the rest of the season simply because there’s about to be nothing else on besides the NBA. College basketball caught the attention of sports fans with the Oklahoma/Kansas game, but they need to maintain that audience.

This is a great year to do so with the parity in college hoops this year. There’s not a great team like we had the last couple of years and you could sell me on almost a dozen teams as those who could win the national championship.

For all your college hoops talk follow me @barstoolreags