Gritty win. And while I agree the lack of fouls being called is ridiculous and seems to go against us, didn't Agee and Hill nearly lead the league in getting to the line this year? I seem to remember seeing a stat indicating that somewhere near the end of the season, so it's not like they don't normally get their fair share of whistles.
But I'd be rich if I got a dollar for every time I said to myself "Fouled again...but no whistle on this end...every fricking time!!!" this season!
My biggest pet peeve with officials though is their theatrics every time they call a charge. Just call the damned foul. We don't need your delay and then Zorro dance as you make the call with the hand behind your head. The fans didn't come to watch you audition for a Hollywood action movie.
Not sure how things finished in the aggregate, but the way this team was officiated definitely seemed to take a turn in the middle of the MAC season (The LA game is a good breakpoint). BG was head and shoulders the leader in FT attempts at one point, not sure where they ended up.
Through 11 MAC games BG was 7-4 and Hill had taken 89FTA (8.1 per game) The only time he attempted less than 4 was the Ball State game where they basically said they weren't going to even try to guard him, and he destroyed them inside.
In the most recent 8 MAC games (yesterday included) BG is 4-4 and Hill has taken only 41 attempts (5 per game). And that average is a bit skewed by having 28 of those attempts come in 3 games, so only 13 in the other 5 (under 4 FTA 3 times)
Over that exact same time period Agee also went from over 6.9 FTA per game to 5.1. His numbers are even more bizarre because he shot 14 in one game and had 3 games of 2 or less FTs in that span.
As a team we shot 25 FTA per game in our first 11 MAC games and only 19.5 in our last 8. Maybe it'd be as simple as saying other teams simply figured out how to guard us, but defensively we went from allowing over 19 FTA per game to 15. It's pretty clear the MAC officials just decided to stop blowing the whistle in the back half of the season. Agee still performed really well without getting the fouls. Hill, and our overall team, did not. It definitely helped us defensively (again, I've never claimed this was one-sided), but we have been far more successful this season playing games in the 70s/80s than in the 60s.
Out of curiosity I looked it up. Hill finished 3rd, Agee 6th in the league in FT attempts this year.
Even more morbid curiosity...
Jihad led the league in FTA. He averaged 8per game before the MAC/Sunbelt challenge, and 6.5 after.
Freeman was 2nd and saw dip from 7 to 5.3.
Seems pretty clear to me that after the sunbelt challenge officials swallowed the whistles throughout league play. I was curious about the teams that finished strong and UT also saw their FT totals drop in the back half. OU stayed pretty similar (actually up a notch). UA dropped by about 1 per game.
hammb wrote: ↑Fri Mar 15, 2024 1:52 pm
Out of curiosity I looked it up. Hill finished 3rd, Agee 6th in the league in FT attempts this year.
Even more morbid curiosity...
Jihad led the league in FTA. He averaged 8per game before the MAC/Sunbelt challenge, and 6.5 after.
Freeman was 2nd and saw dip from 7 to 5.3.
Seems pretty clear to me that after the sunbelt challenge officials swallowed the whistles throughout league play. I was curious about the teams that finished strong and UT also saw their FT totals drop in the back half. OU stayed pretty similar (actually up a notch). UA dropped by about 1 per game.
The one thing about college basketball that I hate is the quality of officiating. It is generally horrible compared to, say, the NBA. It's particularly bad in the MAC. Makes it really difficult to watch games when so much of what you see makes no sense.
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