by MoValley John » January 27th, 2011, 2:16 pm
I don't know if I were a true "Big Man" that I would want to play in the Valley.While the Valley uses the same officials as everybody else, the officials do get directives from teh league office on wht that want emphasized and so the same official that calls a Big 10, Big XII or ACC game will call a Valley game differently. The officiating in the non-conference was different than the officiating has been during the conference season.
I can see Creighton fans being very upset with how the referees are neutering Echineque, but as was said before, they are doing it to Teague as well. And while I understand the "A foul is a foul" Echineque and Teague don't get the same treatment back with "A foul is a foul." Defenders are allowed to hack, push, elbow and body Echineque and Teague as they go to the basket with no foul being called- it takes significant contact against those two for the refs to blow a whistle, if a foul is a foul, that should be called as well and it's not being called that way.
So, while I see all sides on this, fans of schools without a large, dominating big, relishing the way calls are being made, while Creighton fans are pissed because the refs don't let Echineque play. However, the one real danger in all of this is that the way the refs are officiating in the league, the Valley will always be a "guard oriented league." If true bigs aren't allowed to play as true bigs here, why on earth would they ever sign to play for a Valley school? The end result could be that the seven foot, physical monster, the guy who has the choice of trying to develop his "potential" at a BCS school, or being an immediate star at a mid, chooses to sign and sit at Nebraska, Colorado or Iowa, rather than sign and play at Creighton, UNI, Wichita State or Bradley. This has a chilling effect on recruitment.
Put simply, you hinder the recruitment of all bigs in the future, at all Valley schools, when you don't allow the few true bigs we currently have in this league to play as bigs. Recruits do watch basketball and how games are called.