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Friday, February 8, 2008

Awful Officiating: Big Ten Refs Indiana @ Illinois

Last night I got home, turned on ESPN to find Indiana and Illinois tipping off in the first overtime. I figured I'd sit down and watch how this one would end. The officiating during the first overtime period was absolutely horrible. Indiana twice got away with turnovers on their offensive end when the officials first didn't call an offensive foul, and on the next possession they didn't call traveling. It didn't matter for Illinois though who still had a chance to win it when their center Pruitt had a chance to win it with 2 free throws with 2 seconds on the clock. Pruitt 1-7 from the line, wound up missing them both. On the rebound an Indiana player grabbed it, took a dribble, and then attempted to shoot a 3/4 court shot when Pruitt fouled him across the arms. No call! Watching the replay showed that it was basically a boneheaded play on Pruitt who was obviously frustrated after missing two potential game winners (he missed a potential game winning free throw at the end of regulation also). The Illinois bench and coaching staff couldn't believe the no-call, and Jay Bilas even mentioned that sometimes the officials choke on their whistles late in the game. Illinois would pull away during the 2nd OT but there were a few bad calls then as well. I only watched 10 minutes of the 50 minutes played, I sure hope that the officiating wasn't that bad for the entire game.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Technically, Indiana pulled away in the second OT to win.

Also, if you want to talk about blatant examples of referees swallowing their whistles, watch any home Wisconsin game.

Anonymous said...

Big Ten refs are notoriously homers for the home team. They were pretty bad the whole game in this one, especially on charge/block calls. I think they called every one the opposite of what it should have been.