A Season Changing Error against Louisville

Today, the Louisville Cardinals, currently placed in Joe Lunardi’s first four teams out in his recent bracketology, had a great opportunity to enhance the resume on the road against West Virginia (ranked 7th in my Top 25).  Louisville had control throughout the majority of the game, as the Cardinals had a 65-53 lead with about 10 minutes remaining in the game.  West Virginia began to mount a comeback, and cut the lead to one with about 1 minute left.

It was at this point that the officials turned the game against Louisville.  Joe Mazzulla drove to the left side of the lane, was stripped by Louisville’s Rakeem Buckles, and then the ball CLEARLY went off Mazzulla’s head and out of bounds, directly in front of the official.  However, the official gave the ball to West Virginia without hesitation.  Da’Sean Butler, one of the most clutch players in college basketball, immediately hit a 15 foot contested jumper to give the Mountaineers a 1 point lead.  But Louisville still had a chance to respond with a basket of its own.  After a bad miss by Reggie Delk from 3 point range, there was a scrum for the ball underneath the basket.  Once again, Rakeem Buckles was involved, as well as West Virginia’s Devin Ebanks.  Buckles tips the ball towards the out of bounds line, but as it is going out of bounds, Ebanks CLEARLY reaches out and redirects the ball before it goes out of bounds.  In a twist of irony, a ref was again right in front of the play.  Two plays, two refs in perfect position to make the correct call, and two missed calls.  The only difference between the first call and the second call is that Mike Kitts, who was the ref right in front of the play, and a referee that I think is a subpar college basketball referee, ducked.  That is right, he ducked.  As an umpire who would and gladly has been injured by a 70 mph fastballs by not moving on a play in order to not compromise vision and to make the correct call, I find Kitts’ action utterly despicable.  His ONLY job is to stand in there and make the right call, and if that means he takes a ball to the face once in a while, then so be it.  Therefore, no call was made on this play, so the refs went to the monitor.  Even after looking at the monitor for about 5 minutes, the refs still gave the ball to West Virginia.  After a foul and two made free throws, Louisville had little time to make a last second shot and lost the game 77-74.

This loss was, in part, given away by Louisville, who let West Virginia back into the game late.  No argument there.  However, for a team that put its heart and soul into the game for 40 minutes in an effort to get a necessary big win, having the game decided by the referees is not fair.  It begins to make me question what is happening to the quality of refereeing, or officiating in sports in general.  Are the refs simply of less quality than in past years, or are cameras and camera angles improving so that fans can see more poor calls made each game.  I tend to think it is former because any fan watching the game on television could see on both possessions that the ball went out on Louisville, whereas the referee 5 feet from the play could not see the call correctly.  What frustrates me is that poor officiating is costing these teams some very important, potentially season-deciding games.

Louisville is now 13-8 on the season and 4-4 in Big East play.  The Cardinals were in Lunardi’s first four teams out last week in bracketology, and this win would have undoubtedly put the Cardinals tentatively in the tournament.  After the Cardinals started horrifically this season, they went on a 7-1 run entering Big East play to post a 12-4 record, with the only loss coming to Kentucky.  Louisville then entered the difficult part of the Big East schedule.  After leading in each of its past 5 games, Louisville went 1-4 during this stretch, including 3 losses to ranked teams.  Therefore, with this win against West Virginia, the Cardinals recent streak would not look as badly as it does now, and the marquee win would greatly improve the team’s resume.  The horrendous call may have just blown the Louisville season, because the committee will look at this poor stretch in the season, and the lack of a marquee win to this point, and will base judgement from this period.  Without a strong run down the stretch and/or in the Big East tournament, Louisville will have difficultly qualifying for an at large bid in the NCAA tournament.

Now to examine West Virginia.  The Mountaineers are the most clutch team in the last 2 minutes of a game that I have ever seen.  If the Mountaineers are within 10 points in the final 2 minutes, I am worried that they will come back.  Three examples of this late game brilliance are the games against Marquette, Syracuse, and today against Louisville.  Against Marquette, West Virginia trailed by 5 points with 42 seconds remaining.  After a few missed free throws by Marquette, and 3 unbelievable shots down the stretch, including the game winning, 20 foot fade away turn around jumper by Da’ Sean Butler, the Mountaineers won the game 63-62 to keep its record then perfect in the Big East. 

In the Syracuse game, West Virginia trailed 65-55 with 1:25 remaining in the 2nd half.  The Mountaineers then furiously rallied in the final minute, with unbelievable shots by Da’Sean Butler, among others, but came up just short, losing 72-71.  For those counting, that is a 16-7 run in 85 seconds by West Virginia.  Finally, in today’s game against Louisville, West Virginia trailed 71-59 with 6:40 remaining in the game.  After another furious rally by WVU, and a scoring drought by Louisville, the lead was cut to 74-73, Louisville leading.  At this point the referees took the game into their hands, and Louisville could not overcome the extra opportunities given to West Virginia.  The Mountaineers staged another comeback and won the game 77-74.  This ability for the Mountaineers to come back at the end of games is a danger to any opposing team, and is a weapon going into the NCAA tournament.