Game 29: Xavier 630P (FS1, 570 AM)

No surprise here.

- 1 and 3 in games without the entire Wonder five. Includes 2 losses at Alumni where we're pretty good and one at the Garden. 8 and 4 with them all. Plus 12 and 1 out of conference I think.

- 8 losses in a row and counting to Xavier.  Will now have to beat them in Cincy and get help elsewhere to keep the 3 seed.

- Previously mellow Trimble summoning his inner Artest.  Techs in consecutive outings.

- Rough outing for Carmine fave Garfunkel.

- There was a bad first half sequence where we had Earlington, Williams, Trimble, Clark and Figueroa on the court together that led to a Xavier mini-run. It might be a minority opinion but I like to use the bench as little as possible. It was a huge game. Nobody fouled out. I would like some of our top guns to play 40 like Gooden did.

- Ponds was messing with the hurt right hand all game.

- Xavier is quite possibly the best team in the conference and undoubtedly the hottest.

- Driscoll might have had a few shekels on the game.

Roberts thoughts? Had more paint finishes yesterday then Keita has had all year.

Sure but that's all part of the game. Teams adjust and figure out a way to overcome even if the refs are shit. If it was a 1 or 2 possession game then I can understand the gripes. But the game was clearly in Xavier's favor for almost its entirety. The lead seemed to be about 8 points all night. That's much more a lack of execution and adjustments on part of the losing team than it is the refs for some bad calls and non-calls.

SJ had more FGs than X, made more threes, had more assists, had more steals and had fewer TOs. The statistical difference is in fouls (2:1), FTs (33-5) and rebounds. I get that they rebounded poorly and that that was certainly a factor in the final score. Let's leave that aside. What adjustments do you think Mullin might have made to overcome a 28 FT differential? Or forget Mullin. A couple of years ago the Dook Wisconsin NC game was tied at half time - in the second half dook shot 16 FTs and Wisconsin shot three and won by five in another fine effort by Pat Driscoll. What adjustments do you think Bo Ryan should have made to overcome that? Because that Bo Ryan he was a pretty good coach.

To deny that the officiating had a huge effect on last night's game is just willful blindness. Nobody traveled, there were no offensive fouls, no one carried the ball, and no one stood in the lane for three seconds. The only thing the refs noticed was SJ committing a foul every other minute and Mullin's wandering out of the coaching box half a dozen times.

SJ had more FGs than X, made more threes, had more assists, had more steals and had fewer TOs. The statistical difference is in fouls (2:1), FTs (33-5) and rebounds. I get that they rebounded poorly and that that was certainly a factor in the final score. Let's leave that aside. What adjustments do you think Mullin might have made to overcome a 28 FT differential? Or forget Mullin. A couple of years ago the Dook Wisconsin NC game was tied at half time - in the second half dook shot 16 FTs and Wisconsin shot three and won by five in another fine effort by Pat Driscoll. What adjustments do you think Bo Ryan should have made to overcome that? Because that Bo Ryan he was a pretty good coach.

To deny that the officiating had a huge effect on last night's game is just willful blindness. Nobody traveled, there were no offensive fouls, no one carried the ball, and no one stood in the lane for three seconds. The only thing the refs noticed was SJ committing a foul every other minute and Mullin's wandering out of the coaching box half a dozen times.

Exactly.  Even if you believe the loss was on merit (and you can certainly make that case), the refs should still be held accountable for stuff like this.  It just seems like they never are, and the defense the crew in the Seton Hall game got was shameful, to say the least.

Last year, the Yankees lost game 3 of the ALDS 16-1.  It was total embarrassment. But, that does not mean Angel Hernandez should have been let off the hook for his lousy umpiring at first base that night.  The Yankees were bad, and he was bad.  Same as in our game last night.  The two things do not have to be mutually exclusive (our game though, the refs had more of an impact).

SJ had more FGs than X, made more threes, had more assists, had more steals and had fewer TOs. The statistical difference is in fouls (2:1), FTs (33-5) and rebounds. I get that they rebounded poorly and that that was certainly a factor in the final score. Let's leave that aside. What adjustments do you think Mullin might have made to overcome a 28 FT differential? Or forget Mullin. A couple of years ago the Dook Wisconsin NC game was tied at half time - in the second half dook shot 16 FTs and Wisconsin shot three and won by five in another fine effort by Pat Driscoll. What adjustments do you think Bo Ryan should have made to overcome that? Because that Bo Ryan he was a pretty good coach.

To deny that the officiating had a huge effect on last night's game is just willful blindness. Nobody traveled, there were no offensive fouls, no one carried the ball, and no one stood in the lane for three seconds. The only thing the refs noticed was SJ committing a foul every other minute and Mullin's wandering out of the coaching box half a dozen times.

SJ made more 3's because they stand behind the 3 pt line for much of the game. This is a huge problem for this offense, or lack thereof. Do you even watch the games or just read the stat lines? If you did watch you would notice that there is very little dribble penetration in halfcourt sets and this is a huge reason for the FT disparity. You're not going to get foul calls hoisting up deep jumpers all game. Add to that the 2nd chance points off rebounds and that explains away a lot of the stat differential that you're trying to paint in favor of the Johnnies. No one outside of a few real homers would blame that loss last night on the refs. Xavier was the better team.

Mullin and staff need to find a way to deal with bigger, physical teams because clearly they have struggled with that. Providence, Xavier, G'Town and DePaul all used this to their advantage. Saturday's game in Chicago is far from a gimme.

Roberts thoughts? Had more paint finishes yesterday then Keita has had all year.

He certainly outplayed him yesterday.  I didn't see the other outing posters said was good. He had a good game offensively and I thought held his own defensively. If this were to continue I would owe the young man an apology.

This is the second game of the year I would have threatened to forfeit if the refs didn’t cut the shit.

This is absurd. The egos of the officials is out of control. Stu Jackson needs to be fired.

this has got to be the weirdest best season they have had in a while. Team shows up when it feels like it for big games and then just says F it the next

It's not so much about showing up as it is the effects of getting beat downs from physically imposing opponents. At some point that begins to look like " not showing up ". This is the result of not being able to recruit bigs, and recruiting guys who need more experience and / or talent, in order to allow us to  compete against big oriented lineups.

He certainly outplayed him yesterday.  I didn't see the other outing posters said was good. He had a good game offensively and I thought held his own defensively. If this were to continue I would owe the young man an apology.

I thought just yesterday you told me you watch every game

Rebounding was atrocious. So was the FT differential

Think it’s easy to say the FT differential was the refs fault. We are a finesse team who shys away from contact. Yes there were some bad calls, but we did foul them more. You have to watch the game. I read a poster mention Clark’s “clean” steal being called a foul. Well it was a foul once his body hit the players elbow which caused him to lose control of the ball. With Heron out that gives us one player in Ponds who can take the ball to the basket with consistency. LJ does at times but when he does he usually avoids the contact and throws up a circus shot. We don’t have any low post presence.

We may be small, but that is no excuse for getting out rebounded. We are very long and athletic.  It’s about attitude and coaching.

We lost this game because we didn’t have Heron. Marshall had a free ride with Simon. I’ve never seen a player dribbling straight at 3/4 speed get turned over by a defender going straight at 3/4 speed until Marshal did that to Simon last night. Heron is also our best rebounder.

And X was missing 2 of their players so let's just totally ignore that. Agree every game we lost is because we were missing a guy or because we didn't have Wilt Chamberlain out there for us.

Poor start followed by the worst officiating.

When will we learn if you don't show up, you won't win.

However the ref issue is real. The conference really needs to take a look at things. The one thing we can't do is have players throw their hands in the air and whine when they don't get calls. It doesn't help anything. Even if they're right.

Think it’s easy to say the FT differential was the refs fault. We are a finesse team who shys away from contact. Yes there were some bad calls, but we did foul them more. You have to watch the game. I read a poster mention Clark’s “clean” steal being called a foul. Well it was a foul once his body hit the players elbow which caused him to lose control of the ball. With Heron out that gives us one player in Ponds who can take the ball to the basket with consistency. LJ does at times but when he does he usually avoids the contact and throws up a circus shot. We don’t have any low post presence.

We may be small, but that is no excuse for getting out rebounded. We are very long and athletic.  It’s about attitude and coaching.

If you don’t think we, more importantly ponds, got hosed by the refs then please don’t #$%^kng tell me I need to watch the game.

And I agree with you about the foul on Clark. And that’s exactly why I’m saying we got screwed. A body bump is a foul. Except when it happens against ponds.

Poor start followed by the worst officiating.

When will we learn if you don't show up, you won't win.

However the ref issue is real. The conference really needs to take a look at things. The one thing we can't do is have players throw their hands in the air and whine when they don't get calls. It doesn't help anything. Even if they're right.

61-11 in FT attempts for our opponents the last two times this guy Nathan Farrell has worked at CA.

Even if you don't like our attitudes, that's too much of a discrepancy to justify, IMO.

61-11 in FT attempts for our opponents the last two times this guy Nathan Farrell has worked at CA.

Even if you don't like our attitudes, that's too much of a discrepancy to justify, IMO.

Even if people want to point to the fact that we argue too much, (they aren’t wrong) these are adults getting paid thousands of dollars to ref a game. Leave your personal feeling at home for Christ sake.

The statistical difference is in fouls (2:1), FTs (33-5) and rebounds. I get that they rebounded poorly and that that was certainly a factor in the final score. Let's leave that aside. What adjustments do you think Mullin might have made to overcome a 28 FT differential?

maybe practice moving their feet and not using their hands?
Remain disciplined and stop picking up technical fouls? That should help. We did foul them more, regardless of the bad calls.

The topic of FT disparity is interesting. I believe it indicates more how the game was played rather than the refs having it out for one team.

Carmine...I would like to hear your thoughts on how you thought this game was called.

God damn we dropped 10 spots in NET, we are now behind Indiana who lost like 15 games in a row before they finally won this week*

*give or take on the losing streak

Do you even watch the games or just read the stat lines?

Yeah, I watch the games. The difference between us is that I understand what I'm seeing.

Yeah, I watch the games. The difference between us is that I understand what I'm seeing.

Funny. Mullin says the same thing and we see how well that's turning out.

Poor start followed by the worst officiating.

When will we learn if you don't show up, you won't win.

However the ref issue is real. The conference really needs to take a look at things. The one thing we can't do is have players throw their hands in the air and whine when they don't get calls. It doesn't help anything. Even if they're right.

Totally agree. Was at the game last night and while the teams were on the court waiting for tip-off I noticed the young ref having a conversation with one of the Xavier players (friendly, smiling) while there was no chatting with any of our players. Didn't think much of it at the time but who knows?

And I agree with you about the foul on Clark. And that’s exactly why I’m saying we got screwed. A body bump is a foul. Except when it happens against ponds.

Ponds often try’s to avoid contact to get off his shot on drives, that doesn’t do him any favors. Body bumping, although a foul, is called significantly less than reaching fouls. Coaches coach this. Villanova is very good at moving their feet yet bodying the lower portion of the offensive player. Very effective technique. Coaches coach their players to swipe up to the ball intead of down because it doesn’t appear to look like a foul.

We grab, swipe, hit offensive players on the arm all the time, it’s pitiful how bad we are. If as a staff, you know that hitting a players arm will result in a foul call 95% of the time, yet a body bump will be called 40%, how should you be coaching your team to play defense?

The team isn’t being taught proper defensive techniques that will help avoid these FT disparities. I place blame on the staff instead of placing the blame on the refs.