Interesting Column. I admit to being a “Ref Junkie”. I try to look at who is officiating. My view from the second level is not the best…but here goes.
First>> Hats off to the CROWD. There was probably less than 5% UNC light blue there. YES, there were Light BLUE in the PRIZED SEATS in the Main section on each side of the court. The Boosters who have paid substantial bucks for these seats and use them as PERKS for customers or friends were MOSTLY there last night. Sometimes they DO NOT ATTEND. There was very little Light Blue in there….so that IS an improvement. The CROWD WAS LOUD. Great to see it full.
Second>> It was a Tale of First Half vs. Second Half/OT. UNC was out of sync during the first half. NOW, did we cause that or were they overconfident. The score at the half was US UP BY 8. My concern was that if UNC was not playing well, would that continue and if we were playing GREAT…..could we continue. The results were not that unpredicted.
Third>> The Refs were INCONSISTENT. I will NOT say biased, just inconsistent. They called about 9 files (equal on both side) in the first 4 minutes. At that rate, the second half would have been a 40+ foul HALF. As it was it was a 44 Foul Game, including the OT. Considering it was an OT game, it was about average.
FOURTH>> The fouling and calls did seem to be somewhat “ROY” influenced. I do NOT understand HOW or WHAT changed during the half. I am NOT a conspiracy theorist….I do NOT believe that Swofford called and said….TIGHTEN IT UP. But they did and TJ got in trouble. What IS totally baffling is how the UNC Star ended up with NO, NADA, NOT ONE PF. If you look at the distribution, the fouls are TOTALLY inconsistent on the UNC side.
FINALLY….the team really played great. All the comments about TJ’s missing the FT’s. GARBAGE. TJ gets double teamed and caught and has turnovers….NOW, since he scores all of our points….what would YOU do? His FT % is pretty good….but he missed a couple of CLUTCH ones….again, bench him?
Disappointed….YES. Frustrated…..YES. BUT we did play with poise last night and also against Cuse.
If things progress, we will be better….
