Syracuse basketball lost a hard-fought battle last night against the #7 ranked North Carolina Tar Heels, 75-70.
I know, I know. Everyone blames the refs for losses. But in this case, I think there’s at least some room to talk about the officiating in last night’s game. Syracuse basketball was charged with nine offensive fouls. Nine. Gbinije alone accounted for three of them, his only three fouls in the game.
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Before I go any further, let me just say this. The refs weren’t the only reason Syracuse basketball lost. Aside from offensive fouls, they still had a number of bad turnovers. They missed many wide open shots and took many more that just weren’t good decisions. Their perimeter defense was not great all game and UNC had numerous wide open 3’s that they converted.
That being said, if you don’t think that the offensive foul calls had a major shift in the momentum of the game, you are sorely mistaken. In the first half, Syracuse basketball was leading by three points, 17-14, before three consecutive offensive fouls, including two on Gbinije, completely swung the momentum. North Carolina turned that three point deficit into a four point lead, and then expanded that lead while Gbinije was forced to the bench.
Then, in the second half, with North Carolina holding a three point lead, back-to-back offensive fouls (one on Gbinije, one on Coleman) again swung the momentum in favor of UNC, as they pulled back out to an eight point lead as a result.
Here’s the bottom line. I know being an official isn’t easy. But I also know that just because an offensive player drives hard to the basket, it’s not always an offensive foul. Especially when you see 6’8 and 6’9 guys flying to the floor. Sorry, but Malachi Richardson and Michael Gbinije aren’t going to bowl over the stocky, huge back line of North Carolina like they are twigs. It just doesn’t happen.
Not to mention, four of the calls against SU occurred with the defensive player either in the restricted area or still shuffling to get into position. Two more were phantom calls where there wasn’t even contact. On one play, Gbinije drove into the lane and the foul was called as he was going up for a floater. Wait what? How is that even possible? Apparently it was if you’re a ref.
Factor in all those plays and momentum swings, and a five point loss is difficult to swallow.
The other thing that’s hard to swallow is the crazy inconsistency. Time and time again, UNC went over the back of SU’s players to get rebounds with no calls. Several times, they used moving screens to get guys open with no calls. Yet Coleman gets called for it every. single. time.
Here’s a fun stat from the game: UNC was not called for a single offensive foul to SU’s nine. Just a coincidence? I’m not so sure about that.
At the end of the day, a loss is a loss. But I’m honestly just getting tired of the incredibly inconsistent officiating. They try and change the rules every year to make things more clear, but all they do is make them far more confusing. At this point I don’t even think the refs know what they are supposed to call. It’s like they see a player draw contact going to the rim and just flip a proverbial coin to decide who the call is on. They aren’t actually watching defenders feet, and they clearly ignore the restricted area when making calls.
It’s incredibly frustrating as a fan, and the worst part is that nothing will come of it. There is zero accountability with officials. They have no one to answer to in college basketball, and some of them have just been coasting through for years because they know they won’t be reprimanded regardless of how poor a job they do.
Next: Cuse beats NC State on Back of 34 Points from Gbinije
Again, I know it’s not an easy job, but sometimes I’d just rather them let players play. Making calls on those 50/50 plays does absolutely nothing but ruin the flow of the game and artificially change the momentum.
I guess I just pine for the good old days of Big East basketball, where they let the kids play unless the foul was egregious. I wish we could go back to those days, but sadly, that isn’t going to happen. We just need to suck it up, move on, and get ready for FSU.
Check back later in the week for a full preview of the Florida State game.