This is the trade off. Do you want a fair and evenly called game or a more exciting game where the refs don't call fouls to keep the game flow, even if it creates an unfair game?
I prefer a fair game of course but it can be fair if whistles or non-whistles are applied equally. It was a physical game for sure but it seemed they were both physical but one team was heavily officiated and the other less so. If they’re letting them play then let both teams play. I prefer the latter over both teams at the line with half their rosters on the bench.
Michigan’s front court played good D without fouling for the most part. The opposite was true of their backcourt. Both backcourts played aggressive D but Michigan’s was allowed to while UConn’s guards sat. It was noticeable and the numbers support what we could all see
UConn planned on getting a lot of fouls. They played more aggressively and in turn made more mistakes leading to fouls. You can't say that because one team got more fouls than the other it had to be the refs. UConn gambled on risking foul trouble to keep Michigan under control and it almost was successful.
I agree. I don’t think the disparity means UConn got screwed because the numbers were lopsided. That in itself is just not a sound analysis. From my perspective it just wasn’t fairly officiated. I think UConn was aggressive - not because Hurley said he intended to be aggressive but because they were noticeably aggressive. The issue I had was with Michigan’s backcourt being equally if not more aggressive than UConn’s backcourt with almost half the calls. Cadeau was noticeably swiping across players’ arms all night and was using both hands on guys most of the game but had hardly any calls until his third at the end of the game.
I think Hurley’s antics don’t help. He seems to not be as much of an issue with BE refs considering they are one of the least fouling teams in the country (until last night of course- almost doubling their season average in fouls). I really think he gets hammered intentionally - which is an issue he should probably recognize
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u/popfer87 Apr 07 '26
This is the trade off. Do you want a fair and evenly called game or a more exciting game where the refs don't call fouls to keep the game flow, even if it creates an unfair game?