UNI @ Drake

[pantherrob82]

Good game by Drake. Key stat was Moran going scoreless. Officials were awful both ways. Made it hard to watch.

[DUBulldog]

Good game by Drake. Key stat was Moran going scoreless. Officials were awful both ways. Made it hard to watch.

I don't know why, but it really seems like officiating is getting worse. Today's crew was unbelievably bad. The technical foul called on Drake assistant Kareem Richardson still has me scratching my head (as does the call that preceded it). The foul call on Rice led to a media timeout, and Richardson walked out onto the court where they always huddle during timeouts....and he was T'd up for being out on the floor. I don't think he walked out on the floor to argue the call, although it was a terrible call by an out of position official.

[Kyle]

Congrats Drake. Rice is a great player and has the potential to be the MVC POY by the time his career is over.

UNI is usually very good with help defense, but tonight it was non existent. And as was already mentioned, the refs were terrible. The T on the Drake bench was laughable. Thankfully, it didn't affect the outcome of the game.

Hopefully UNI will make some defensive adjustments and hold onto a top 3 finish.

[DUBulldog]

Congrats Drake. Rice is a great player and has the potential to be the MVC POY by the time his career is over.

UNI is usually very good with help defense, but tonight it was non existent.

I was surprised by how many easy looks Drake got on dribble penetration. Definitely not the UNI defense I'm used to seeing.

When Drake played up in Cedar Falls a few weeks ago, UNI was doing a lot of double-teams and aggressively jumping out at the dribbler. Didn't see any of that today. DU commited 19 turnovers up in CF, only 3 today.

If you look at the stats, it's almost incredible how close the game was in every area. And, it was definitely an entertaining game.

[pantherrob82]

Good game by Drake. Key stat was Moran going scoreless. Officials were awful both ways. Made it hard to watch.

I don't know why, but it really seems like officiating is getting worse. Today's crew was unbelievably bad. The technical foul called on Drake assistant Kareem Richardson still has me scratching my head (as does the call that preceded it). The foul call on Rice led to a media timeout, and Richardson walked out onto the court where they always huddle during timeouts....and he was T'd up for being out on the floor. I don't think he walked out on the floor to argue the call, although it was a terrible call by an out of position official.

I agree with it being weird with the media timeout. Seemed like he got to the free throw line pretty quick though.

I wonder if he said something?

[Drakey]

I think the dribble penetration by Drake had more to do with the Bulldogs than it did with UNI. The last time they played, the Bulldogs were still in the mode of constantly moving away from the basket instead of towards the basket, or passing the ball into the post and standing around while Van Deest tried in vain to make post moves. when Wedl moved to the point afew games back, he began pushing the tempo and when Van Deest went out, the middle opend up for penetration. It's very easy to pressure tnetative players who are not attacking the basket.

[DUBulldog]

Good game by Drake. Key stat was Moran going scoreless. Officials were awful both ways. Made it hard to watch.

I don't know why, but it really seems like officiating is getting worse. Today's crew was unbelievably bad. The technical foul called on Drake assistant Kareem Richardson still has me scratching my head (as does the call that preceded it). The foul call on Rice led to a media timeout, and Richardson walked out onto the court where they always huddle during timeouts....and he was T'd up for being out on the floor. I don't think he walked out on the floor to argue the call, although it was a terrible call by an out of position official.

I agree with it being weird with the media timeout. Seemed like he got to the free throw line pretty quick though.

I wonder if he said something?

I know the Drake bench was doing a lot of yelling about that call. I think Richardson knew the media time out was coming, and jumped up and starting walking out onto the court as soon as he heard the whistle. My guess is that the official looked toward the Drake bench, saw Richardson on the court, and T'd him up without realizing the reason he was on the court had nothing to do with arguing the call.

As it turned out, UNI only hit 1 of the 4 free throws (2 for the T, 2 for the foul), so it really didn't affect the outcome at all.

I couldn't believe how many calls were being made by officials who were way out of position. I also was amazed when they granted Drake a timeout after a score......but after UNI had already inbounded the ball.

And, the refs icing the Drake free throw shooter when both teams were out of timeouts was just bizarre. If there was a question about the time on the clock, they probably should have addressed it before his first free throw.

Drake dodged a bullet when Koch missed that 3 at the buzzer. I can't believe Phelps didn't have the Drake players foul with about 2 seconds left, before the shot was attempted. When you're up 3 with that little time left, I think that's the way to go.

[valleychamp]

Oficiating across the board is pretty bad in college basketball. There are very few good officials.

[DUBulldog]

I think the dribble penetration by Drake had more to do with the Bulldogs than it did with UNI. The last time they played, the Bulldogs were still in the mode of constantly moving away from the basket instead of towards the basket, or passing the ball into the post and standing around while Van Deest tried in vain to make post moves. when Wedl moved to the point afew games back, he began pushing the tempo and when Van Deest went out, the middle opend up for penetration. It's very easy to pressure tnetative players who are not attacking the basket.

I also think Drake had much better spacing, and utilized a lot fewer ball screens, which reduced UNI's opportunities to double team.

[mecha_bulldog]

I think the dribble penetration by Drake had more to do with the Bulldogs than it did with UNI. The last time they played, the Bulldogs were still in the mode of constantly moving away from the basket instead of towards the basket, or passing the ball into the post and standing around while Van Deest tried in vain to make post moves. when Wedl moved to the point afew games back, he began pushing the tempo and when Van Deest went out, the middle opend up for penetration. It's very easy to pressure tnetative players who are not attacking the basket.

I also think Drake had much better spacing, and utilized a lot fewer ball screens, which reduced UNI's opportunities to double team.

I think the officiating had a lot to do with the defense (both ways). The refs made very few calls that penalized the offense (I only remember one travel call, and were there any offensive fouls?), but a whole bunch of calls that penalized the defense. It's pretty hard to play defense when the officiating so heavily favors the offense.