MVC Games Week 16

[BEARZ77]

While it benefited Missouri State for UNI to win, and I certainly am glad the Champion of the Valley isn't a team leaving the conference, still I thought the foul disparity in the game was the difference. 42 fouls shots to 20 is impossible to overcome in a game as tight as this. I thought in a game that was obviously physical, the difference was the ticky tack ones that got called on one end and not the other. That always perplexes me in a game when you see the officials look away on significant contact that doesn't really effect the play [ which I like] , but then call some hand touch or reach that equally doesn't mean squat as far as the action. Not sure if this is true, but saw it reported that one of the officials, for a game this big, had only reffed 4 games all year, all in Cedar Falls for UNI. Hope that's not true, cause that's pretty much the definition of having a home court ref in your pocket. Is that accurate ?

[BCPanther]

While it benefited Missouri State for UNI to win, and I certainly am glad the Champion of the Valley isn't a team leaving the conference, still I thought the foul disparity in the game was the difference. 42 fouls shots to 20 is impossible to overcome in a game as tight as this. I thought in a game that was obviously physical, the difference was the ticky tack ones that got called on one end and not the other. That always perplexes me in a game when you see the officials look away on significant contact that doesn't really effect the play [ which I like] , but then call some hand touch or reach that equally doesn't mean squat as far as the action. Not sure if this is true, but saw it reported that one of the officials, for a game this big, had only reffed 4 games all year, all in Cedar Falls for UNI. Hope that's not true, cause that's pretty much the definition of having a home court ref in your pocket. Is that accurate ?

It's 100% not true. Dave Cusick is a fairly regular Saturday in the Valley guy. He lives in Iowa City, so we tend to get him in Cedar Falls for our non-DI and low major home games because he's close and cheap.

The league needed to do a better job of getting a better crew for that game. It was way too big for them. I get Saturdays are hard with the Big 12 always having a full slate but if we make it a better deal for a few of the top guys financially it would pay off.

[DUBulldog]

While it benefited Missouri State for UNI to win, and I certainly am glad the Champion of the Valley isn't a team leaving the conference, still I thought the foul disparity in the game was the difference. 42 fouls shots to 20 is impossible to overcome in a game as tight as this. I thought in a game that was obviously physical, the difference was the ticky tack ones that got called on one end and not the other. That always perplexes me in a game when you see the officials look away on significant contact that doesn't really effect the play [ which I like] , but then call some hand touch or reach that equally doesn't mean squat as far as the action. Not sure if this is true, but saw it reported that one of the officials, for a game this big, had only reffed 4 games all year, all in Cedar Falls for UNI. Hope that's not true, cause that's pretty much the definition of having a home court ref in your pocket. Is that accurate ?

It's 100% not true. Dave Cusick is a fairly regular Saturday in the Valley guy. He lives in Iowa City, so we tend to get him in Cedar Falls for our non-DI and low major home games because he's close and cheap.

The league needed to do a better job of getting a better crew for that game. It was way too big for them. I get Saturdays are hard with the Big 12 always having a full slate but if we make it a better deal for a few of the top guys financially it would pay off.

When I looked him up on Kenpom.com, it showed only 4 D1 games this season for Cusick....all at UNI.

https://kenpom.com/referee.php?r=720613 (you probably won't be able to see the data on the link unless you have a subscription to Kenpom)

[BEARZ77]

Glad to hear he's not a "UNI only" game official[ if that bears out, seems to be some debate] But yeah , league needed to make sure that was a top flight crew for such an important game. Officiating is such a tough gig , the only thing I look for is consistency. There's always going to be variances crew to crew, game to game, and coaches and players can adjust if the game is consistent. Again individual calls will always have some debate , refs are human and mistakes happen. But where officials usually draw the most ire isn't on a single call, it's being inconsistent one end to the other, or inconsistent in how and where they allow or call contact.

[Khan4Cats]

Glad to hear he's not a "UNI only" game official[ if that bears out, seems to be some debate] But yeah , league needed to make sure that was a top flight crew for such an important game. Officiating is such a tough gig , the only thing I look for is consistency. There's always going to be variances crew to crew, game to game, and coaches and players can adjust if the game is consistent. Again individual calls will always have some debate , refs are human and mistakes happen. But where officials usually draw the most ire isn't on a single call, it's being inconsistent one end to the other, or inconsistent in how and where they allow or call contact.

Well, I know that Cusick did the UNI at SIU game as well, so he definitely not an only at UNI guy. Pretty sure he did one other road game in conference for us as well but the road box scores don't always show the officiating crew. Frankly, I like Dave and Randy Heimermann because I have worked with them (been mentored by them) at several officiating camps over the years. I have also gotten to know a few of the other regular Valley guys as well but I point out those two because they live in Iowa and I always worry about perception when they do our games that people will feel they will be biased (not that either guy lives in Cedar Falls or has any other connection with UNI).

Roland Simmons does games all over, and has been a consistent NCAA Tourney draw. The other guy I am not sure I have seen before.

As for the fouls, you could also look at shot selection as a reason for the discrepancy. Loyola shot more than half of their attempts from deep, UNI about a third. A jump shooting team typically doesn't get as many calls as a team that is driving. Add to that that this was Loyola's 4th game in a week and you might also have some legs tiring out leading to more reaching/grabbing.

[glm38]

That was one great game between UNI and Loyola for the title. I don't think UNI is the most talented MVC team this year but with Jacobson coaching they were the best by a hair. Congrats to UNI.

[tribecalledquest]

That was one great game between UNI and Loyola for the title. I don't think UNI is the most talented MVC team this year but with Jacobson coaching they were the best by a hair. Congrats to UNI.

For sure. The best the league could ask for really. And I'm happy it wasn't a grind it out slugfest. Lots of scoring. Great offense.

UNI has the best offense in the league for sure. Fun to watch.

[BEARZ77]

And that's usually a big indicator I look at [ who was shooting treys vs driving] along with was one team behind late in the game and therefore the foul disparity got ballooned late. But while it's true Loyola did shoot a lot of treys, Green is almost exclusively a jump shooter [ not just treys, but few attempts at the rim] and he shot 18 fts. But again i just thought there were more light contact fouls called against Loyola . It's pretty amazing in such a highly competitive game, they could make up a 20 point differential at the foul line and have chances to win. That's almost impossible to do.

[DUBulldog]

That was one great game between UNI and Loyola for the title. I don't think UNI is the most talented MVC team this year but with Jacobson coaching they were the best by a hair. Congrats to UNI.

With a healthy Phyfe, UNI might be the most talented team.

But, there is really very little difference between any of the top 4. One bounce going the other way in one game could have had any of the top 4 finishing first. If Roman Penn makes his 2nd free throw against UNI in DM (with 10-15 seconds left), Drake is 14-4 and UNI is 13-5. I'm sure there are multiple similar examples for each of the top 4.

[glm38]

That was one great game between UNI and Loyola for the title. I don't think UNI is the most talented MVC team this year but with Jacobson coaching they were the best by a hair. Congrats to UNI.

With a healthy Phyfe, UNI might be the most talented team.

But, there is really very little difference between any of the top 4. One bounce going the other way in one game could have had any of the top 4 finishing first. If Roman Penn makes his 2nd free throw against UNI in DM (with 10-15 seconds left), Drake is 14-4 and UNI is 13-5. I'm sure there are multiple similar examples for each of the top 4.

I'd still take MSU as the most talented. Especially if you add in our injured starting PG Sharpe. But I'm a homer LOL. And I definitely agree all 4 teams at the top are very talented. I think any of our four are capable of winning a few games in the ncaa tournament. It's a shame we'll likely only see one of them there.