One of the things that makes winning at BCS league school gyms so difficult for mid-majors during the non-conference part of the season is that the officiating is almost always so biased towards the power conference side that, if CBS and ESPN weren’t already so busy carrying the banner for squads from the BCS conferences, it would be college hoops equivalent of Fox Noise. Since CBS and ESPN are already fulfilling that role, the blatant and obvious one-sided officiating is more like the Wall Street Journal or Washington Times op-ed pages. Just another cog in the college hoops echo chamber trying to ensure the primacy of a select handful of teams from a pre-ordained handful of conferences.
Certainly, officiating wasn’t the only reason Akron got hammered at Pittsburgh Friday night, losing 86-67, but when the Panthers take 37 freebies as opposed to a mere 14 attempted by the Zips, it definitely played a role. When Akron gets whistled for 30 fouls and a physical Pitt squad only 16, and two Zips players foul out, and no Pitt player finishes with more than three personals, it becomes pretty clear that this was not an evenly officiated game.
In fact, I quit watching this game because the refereeing was so blatantly one-sided, and so disruptive, as to destroy any semblance of flow and rhythm this game might have otherwise had, that is was unwatchable.
Sadly, this is the case more often than not during the non-league part of the season. When a mid-major visits a BCS league squad, the refs usually are culled from the cadre of officials who work games in said BCS conference. Believe me, that was not a MAC, Ohio Valley, Big Ten, Atlantic 10, or Horizon League crew working the Akron-Pitt game. It was a straight-up Big East crew that probably does about 12 Pitt games a season. And it showed.
The Zips may have lost to Pitt, but it wasn’t a fair fight. Let’s see how this overrated squad is on a neutral court.
Pittsburgh is the first BCS team on my official shit list this season. Better believe I’ll be rooting against them in the Big East, and should they make the Big Dance, for them to be knocked on immediately.
Since they won’t have their own officials at every game this season providing a 23-shot disparity at the charity stripe, there’s a pretty good chance of karma biting Pitt in the ass before the season is over.
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