 |
| The right team won on Monday....even with obvious incompetent reffing (Photo credit: fansided.com) |
It’s 2 days after the conclusion of another
insane wild roller coaster March Madness, and these 2 days were needed to
digest the North Carolina v. Gonzaga final.
The game had 2 great elite teams, in what
normally would be considered a blue blood program in North Carolina playing the
ultimate mid-major Cinderella team in Gonzaga. I’ll stop you right there and
declare Gonzaga a national powerhouse program.
Anyhoo, the game had pure Madness. There
were 2 ‘national powerhouse’ teams that struggled and grinded the whole game
despite performances that weren’t top performances.
Gonzaga’s Przemek Karnowski struggled
mightily missing many 2-footers from the post. UNC’s Jr. PG Joel Berry was
jacking erratic treys. The Zags All-American PG Nigel Williams-Boss was missing
many drives through the lane.
Joel Berry came into the game with 2
sprained ankles, while Nigel Williams-Goss had to deal with the last few
minutes hobbling on a sprained ankle that caused an obvious limp, but there was
zero ways he was going to come out of the game.
Both teams had runs on offense to take
slight leads and also stuffed the other team to struggle offensively due to
suffocating defending.
But what the game also had was referee
madness! All subsequent reports as well as conversations with Insanity Report
participants was that the game “HAD NO FLOW”!
This was all due to the incompetent reffing that went on the entire
game, but especially in the 2nd half.
Before I go any further, I will go on
record saying that no bad ref or bad ref call has ever won or lost a game for
any team. This may seem like a bold statement to many as one may think back to
many controversial calls in games past But as crucial a call may be late in the
game doesn’t negate the hundreds of decisions both teams make during the game
that affect their outcome more than one or two controversial calls. Moreover,
despite a controversial call that may very well be a wrong call, the supposed
victimizing team still has a chance to make a stop or a hoop, whatever is
needed to negate that call. The control is always with both teams.
BUT…….
The refs made horrible call after horrible
call led by the fouls on Gonzaga’s freshman big man, Zach Collins that allowed
him to play only 14 minutes and be fouled out late in the game. Collins was by
far the most productive player for the Bulldogs on Monday night. Three of his
five fouls were absolute phantom calls led by his apparent offensive foul in
the 2nd half when he was trying to post up in the paint. The replay
showed absolutely zero grounds for a foul, and the ref might as well have
voiced to the scorers’ table, “Fouls on #32 blue for posting up!”
I have no idea what that foul was for. So
the refs affected Gonzaga’s best player to play limited minutes and miss the
crucial final minutes of this barn burner of a national championship.
There was viral photo on social media
showing a jump ball where UNC regained possession where UNC Kennedy Meeks’ hand
was out of bounds as he was also touching the ball. But later, Gonzaga shot an
apparent air ball out of bounds, where the ball was awarded back to Gonzaga as
the refs said the ball was partially blocked by UNC. Replay showed that the UNC
player didn’t touch the ball.
The horrible reffing went both ways. This
can be refer to the common adage that at least the refs sucked both ways.
But their obvious incompetency affected the
FLOW of the game as both teams were playing defense on egg shells. They
couldn’t afford to foul so they played rarely played zone defenses to try to
avoid foul calls.
Once again, the right team won though. UNC
made shots such as Isaiah Hicks absolute clutch And-1 in the last minute, and
UNC stopped Gonzaga on crucial plays led by Nigel Williams-Goss blocked shot to
try to tie the game in the last 30 seconds.
So whats the big deal?
The big deal is that the refs horrible and absolutely
incompetent calls led to the absolute anxiety for both Gonzaga and UNC fans. I
feel robbed of madness from this officiating incompetency. Of what could have
been from both teams if there wasn’t the unnecessary foul trouble on Collins
and Meeks.
Both teams struggled mightily from the
shear magnitude of a National Championship game, and yet both grinded until the
bitter end with Joel Berry’s 21 points on 19 shots and Karnowski’s clutch free
throws late in the game and Williams-Goss’ late hoops in the last 2 minutes.
There were many clutch performances and the
game as a whole was as exciting as it could be despite the lack of flow. The
right team won.
BUT…
This shouldn’t exonerate the refs their own
horrible performance.
But this is the Madness. It’s a Madness
where the human element is celebrated of the players and coaches where season
long journeys and 4-year journeys are culminated into great March Madness
moments due to the intangibles gained from said journeys.
These human elements include buzzer
beaters, great comebacks, great choke jobs of all that involved and this
includes the referees.
So we got what we always want out of March
Madness.
We got a roller coaster 3 weeks of great
basketball, and it may be painful to some to admit, this roller coaster
does….involve….the refs.
We got our Madness. We got our Insanity.
Our straight jackets were torn once again.
All that is left is sadness that it’s over
and the immediate anticipation of Midnight Madness in November!
Here’s to the greatest time of the year!
Congratulations UNC. Congrats Zags and congrats to all graduating players!
Yours in Madness,
Commissioner Adolph
