Fans are leaving game. Collude? I think the refs are just easily intimidated - especially at home. Most good teams DO get a preferential whistle at home - but Duke, Mich St, UNC for 40 years (I can bring out all the Mike K and Valvano quotes from the 80's - they both recognized the dominance of UNC in ACC hoops - and both complained bitterly about Dean Smith intimidating refs) get more than a preferential whistle. The only folks who deny this are fans of Duke/UK/KU/UNC/Mich St.
I witnessed it first hand for 50 years in ACC, now after 5 in BIG - Izzo owns refs as well. Melo Trimble in freshman year led BIG in FT attempts - Izzo complained openly about how Trimble was using improper head fakes to draw blocking fouls. Next two seasons - unless Trimble got his leg broken - he was not getting fouls called on the road. Two eye gouges in Iowa, thrown to ground repeatedly on drives to hoop - with a fractured elbow in Ann Arbor- uh...no foul. The BIG refs got message - Melo gets no more free lunches at foul line. Just so blatant and ridiculous.
I am not saying Terps have better teams and were robbed, Those teams are better than ours most years,,,,what it does is lose fan interest if you know that at crucial times in games - the more nationally recognized team, esp at home - is going to get the calls it needs at all the right times. I have had this argument with my Dukie friends here in Virginia for 30 years - they always like to argue total foul calls by end of game to show how the refs call it straight, nonsense. It is the crucial calls at momentum swing plays that change outcomes. If your 2 star players get 3 fouls called on them by 2nd TV timeout in first half - THAT changes a game. Not how many total fouls are called at end of game.
It was old 40 years ago - now - I really am over it. It is just boring and more of the same. The question being discussed in this thread is why are fans leaving the game
1. Home cooking by refs - especially at home for the ESPN teams (Dook/UNC/KU/UK/Mich St) - fans of the rest of us are losing hope that we will ever again get the upset that we need to get us in Tourney.
2. 10 top high school players going to Duke and Kentucky every year - and a few sprinkled in to Kansas, Zona, LSU, Washington, and yes - even Maryland with Diamond Stone. This does not guarantee a Natty - but it does guarantee a season of breathless, constant lecturing on the greatness of Mike, Cashipari, Bill Self and Tom Izzo. For fucx sake - Duke has a 30 minute infomercial on ESPN. Including the spectacle of Mike coachin' up his one of his soon to be ex Dookie 19 year old millionaires on shooting - "you know RJ, when you get tired your shot gets a little flat - you need to work on proper arc, and conditioning". Whew - dig up John Wooden and Dr. Naismith - let em know Mike cracked the code. What time does the 30 minute special featuring Syracuse, BC, Pitt, MD, UVA. NC State, Ga Tech, Iowa, Michigan, Northwestern or 340 other schools basketball team air on ESPN?? Uh...never. If you do not see this as a clear recruiting advantage - you are in denial - the place where many people of the ESPN teams live.
