Quickie

O.K. somebody please get the NCAA officials under control. For some reason, todays refs feel they need to be as big a part of the game, as the players. It all started a week ago with the antics of the PAC-10 refs, who’s mind numbingly bad calls put the bracket rankings in flux. Today’s big ten tourney was no better. First Bo Ryan, who may be the classiest coach you’ll ever meet, picked up a Technical for yelling at one of his own players, Brian Butch. Today during the Buckeyes vs. Spartans matchup they kicked it up a notch. MSU went the whole first half without shooting a free throw. Tom Izzo was about to pop, lucky for him, they decided to make it up a little. After tying the game, things got a little crazy. In the span of about 1 minute, the Buckeyes picked up 4 fouls and a technical. Koufos got three fouls, two of which were absolute jokes, Othello Hunter picked up a foul under the basket, on a play that went un-called several times in the first half. After the foul he put his hand up and yelled “No!” This of course drew a Technical. OSU’s defense had held MSU scoreless for several minutes prior to this nonsense. Just in time the refs decided they had took it a little far, calling a charge on MSU, despite the fact that OSU’s David Lighty was standing directly under the basket. I’m not saying the refs cost OSU the game, that would be Drew Neitzel going ape shit, but a game that was tied became an 8 point lead for sparty. Someone needs to step in during timeouts and calm these refs down, and remind them that the players are more than capable of deciding the outcome themselves. Instead of seeing two equally matched teams go at it, we have to include the mood of the officials into the equation. It’s almost like baseball season is already here, with the umpires rabbit ears moving to the hard wood.