MBB: NESCAC

[lumbercat]

Sure you were sitting with them all day and you like them but let me know the next time you see a call quite like that. Good, marginal and rookie Refs let that go along with most everything else with less than 10 seconds left!!! It's gotta be blatant.
Watch the big tournament coming up and tell when you see a call anything like that in the last 30 seconds of a tied tournament game. 

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Sure you were sitting with them all day and you like them but let me know the next time you see a call quite like that. Good, marginal and rookie Refs let that go along with most everything else with less than 10 seconds left!!! It's gotta be blatant.
Watch the big tournament coming up and tell when you see a call anything like that in the last 30 seconds of a tied tournament game. 

Again, you can't let it go.  You have to call something.  A guy ended up out of bounds.  You can't no call that.  You're right.  The contact was not something any ref would call on it's own - I doubt even the guy who called it wanted to call it.  You have to say either, the tiny amount of contact led to the guy falling out of bounds or he fell out of bounds all on his own.  Either way one team is upset.

It's a tough call.  It's a frustrating way to end.  It's not a bad call.

[nescac1]

As a ref, you have two options - you can just let the entire play go. They awarded the ball to Yeshiva with .2 seconds.  If the "illegal" contact actually occurred with .2 seconds to go, that means that regulation was over by the time the Yeshiva player went out of bounds at least half a second later.  That would have been the better option. But even ignoring what was incidental contact going after a loose ball and giving Bates the ball with .2 seconds, requiring an alleyoop miracle on a live ball play, would have been better than giving Yeshiva an 80 percent chance to win it on a dead ball play on the other side of the court. 

One of my least favorite arguments is if it's a foul, it's a foul.  The whole point of refereeing at a high level is the exercise of discretion. Half the screens in basketball are moving by the textbook definition of the rule.  Guys grab other guys off ball on every single play.  Offensive players constantly use their arms to create space.  You can call a piddling technically correct call on every play of the game yet still be an atrocious referee.   And yes most refs are loathe to decide a game as the clock expires with anything but a shooting foul that actually affects a shot or an over the top unambiguous off ball foul.

It's too bad the ending detracted a bit from a great game featuring awesome individual plays by both teams.  And also a tremendous game today between two Cinderella teams.  Maine Farmington is interesting in that it has two stars who put up crazy stats who were fairly mediocre performers last year. The team as a whole made a massive leap. Impressive job by the young coach there.  They are also one of the few teams in the tourney smaller than Yeshiva. Two of the top individual scoring guards in the country going head to head.  Should be fun! 
 

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

He went out of bounds at a little over a second.  The refs put .2 up because that's how much time was on the ball when the ref blew the whistle.

I guarantee you he wished it were .3, later, because everyone agrees it shouldn't end that way.

[D3BBALL]

As a ref, you have two options - you can just let the entire play go. They awarded the ball to Yeshiva with .2 seconds.  If the "illegal" contact actually occurred with .2 seconds to go, that means that regulation was over by the time the Yeshiva player went out of bounds at least half a second later.  That would have been the better option. But even ignoring what was incidental contact going after a loose ball and giving Bates the ball with .2 seconds, requiring an alleyoop miracle on a live ball play, would have been better than giving Yeshiva an 80 percent chance to win it on a dead ball play on the other side of the court. 

One of my least favorite arguments is if it's a foul, it's a foul.  The whole point of refereeing at a high level is the exercise of discretion. Half the screens in basketball are moving by the textbook definition of the rule.  Guys grab other guys off ball on every single play.  Offensive players constantly use their arms to create space.  You can call a piddling technically correct call on every play of the game yet still be an atrocious referee.   And yes most refs are loathe to decide a game as the clock expires with anything but a shooting foul that actually affects a shot or an over the top unambiguous off ball foul.

It's too bad the ending detracted a bit from a great game featuring awesome individual plays by both teams.  And also a tremendous game today between two Cinderella teams.  Maine Farmington is interesting in that it has two stars who put up crazy stats who were fairly mediocre performers last year. The team as a whole made a massive leap. Impressive job by the young coach there.  They are also one of the few teams in the tourney smaller than Yeshiva. Two of the top individual scoring guards in the country going head to head.  Should be fun! 
 

Excellent points, and the missed call on the offensive foul seconds earlier where all 3 refs could clearly see it, was a bigger embarrassment. So they blow the whistles correctly on the touch foul, but just earlier miss a clear offensive foul.
Basketball is by far the worst officiated game of the 4 major sports, with football a close 2nd. There is zero consistency within games, zero consistency between refs and too many times they don't call the game based on the actual rules. There was a reason years ago they went from 2 refs to 3 refs, not sure that helps all the time.
Last year championship game one ref did call a foul on Drew Lazarre with about 10 seconds to go as the NYU coach was calling timeout. It was clearly not a foul and if you watched the replay you certainly could have seen that the foul happened before the timeout, the refs said the timeout happened first. But if they ruled the other way, NYU is shooting free throws to tie the game for no reason. Just another bad example of refereeing late in games. Refs like players freeze up at the wrong time.
Supposedly all the refs are monitored, reevaluated all the time. Have to question who is actually doing this.

[NEhoops]

Trinity/Babson – Trinity blew out Babson in Hartford in early December. Regardless of that game, I think yesterday's result was a good warning that they can't take them lightly. Being at home is a huge plus. Any update on the status of Okorougo? Great season for St. Joe's (ME) out of the GNAC – I always appreciate when other New England teams/conferences are well represented in the tournament. Likely All-American Remijo Wani will be a senior next season.

Tufts/Catholic – Don't know much about Catholic, but this will definitely be a step up in talent compared to PSH. Things get very competitive, very quickly in the second round and again being home will be helpful. If Gyimesi didn't play yesterday, it would surprising if he did today. Same could be said for the Trinity situation. Good season for West Conn out of the Little East, they took Catholic right down to the wire.

Wesleyan/NYU – Same story here, at home against a very good opponent. Limited insight into NYU but they are battle tested and experienced – the UAA went 4-0 yesterday.

Amherst/Mary Washington – Great win for Amherst against an always competitive WPI team. Making the tournament was a huge success for them. They weren't anywhere near the at large conversation at the end of December, but why stop now. They will be true road underdogs today against a team that ended the season #4 in the NPI rankings.   

Maine-Farmington/Yeshiva – Impressive result for Farmington (NAC), a true road win against a team that had won 25 games. I think that was Farmington's second tournament win all time and they have a roster almost exclusively of Maine players. The coach is a former Bates assistant and St. Joe's (ME) player. I'm sure the Bates fanbase will be pulling for them. Not to oversimplify it, but holding Samet to under 20 points seems like a path to beating Yeshiva. I wouldn't be surprised if Farmington traps him on ball screens, particularly later in the shot clock. Good season for Bates – nescac1 well said regarding the end of their game.

Good luck to Endicott out of the CNE. I think a win today would give them their second Sweet 16 appearance.

[D3BBALL]

Okorougo is going to try and play today. Just a guess, he will see what he can do during warm-ups and go from there.

[Patrick Coleman]

Supposedly all the refs are monitored, reevaluated all the time. Have to question who is actually doing this.

Jim Haney, the coordinator of officials for Division III men's basketball, and the conference and local area coordinators, do this.

Jim Haney is active on X if you want to follow or learn more, and he is a regular guest on the D-III basketball shows. That includes with Ryan Scott in the preseason where they discussed this year's rule changes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-m_fMXI6kVQ

[Bucket]

I try to refrain from complaining about officiating relative to the outcome of any game in any sport but that was a tough one today.....can't ever remember a ref blowing a whistle on a very marginal call like that at the expiration of regulation time. The only way a call like that is made in that scenario is if the kid was on a fast break and got hit from behind or somebody got totally mugged.

I was sitting right next to the official observer.  We were talking most of the game.  Overall the refs did a great job.  That last one was just unfortunate.  In most situations you can let a tap like that go and head to OT, but the kid fell out of bounds before the buzzer, you have to call one thing or the other.

He called for the review so fast, you could tell genuinely hoping the buzzer went before his whistle.  Big props to Zakheim for hitting the shot, though.  Tough situation.

Tremendous game all around.  Bates did really well to come back and be right in it.

Actually, no. Just signal the end of the half. Easy.

[Bucket]

Sure you were sitting with them all day and you like them but let me know the next time you see a call quite like that. Good, marginal and rookie Refs let that go along with most everything else with less than 10 seconds left!!! It's gotta be blatant.
Watch the big tournament coming up and tell when you see a call anything like that in the last 30 seconds of a tied tournament game. 

Again, you can't let it go.  You have to call something.  A guy ended up out of bounds.  You can't no call that.  You're right.  The contact was not something any ref would call on it's own - I doubt even the guy who called it wanted to call it.  You have to say either, the tiny amount of contact led to the guy falling out of bounds or he fell out of bounds all on his own.  Either way one team is upset.

It's a tough call.  It's a frustrating way to end.  It's not a bad call.

You 100 percent can let it go. I've shared the video with two folks who are/have been veteran D1 officials. They both didn't hesitate: Half over.

[D3BBALL]

Sure you were sitting with them all day and you like them but let me know the next time you see a call quite like that. Good, marginal and rookie Refs let that go along with most everything else with less than 10 seconds left!!! It's gotta be blatant.
Watch the big tournament coming up and tell when you see a call anything like that in the last 30 seconds of a tied tournament game. 

Again, you can't let it go.  You have to call something.  A guy ended up out of bounds.  You can't no call that.  You're right.  The contact was not something any ref would call on it's own - I doubt even the guy who called it wanted to call it.  You have to say either, the tiny amount of contact led to the guy falling out of bounds or he fell out of bounds all on his own.  Either way one team is upset.

It's a tough call.  It's a frustrating way to end.  It's not a bad call.

You 100 percent can let it go. I've shared the video with two folks who are/have been veteran D1 officials. They both didn't hesitate: Half over.

Sorry in NCAA, D3 can't be like D1,😂😂😂😂😂

[jumbomumbo]

Mumbo predicts.

Tufts 67-65 over Catholic
Trinity 75-56 over Babson
Wesleyan 71-65 over NYU
Mary Washington 82-49 over Amherst.

Trinity bounces back. Tufts squeaks one out at home. Wes the better team against NYU. Amherst comes back down to earth. I'm rooting for Amherst, I just want the blowout prediction on the record in case it happens. I have Amherst in my Elite 8 for the bracket just for shyts.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

I feel like Amherst is a terrible matchup for UMW, whereas Catholic should be great for Tufts.  I guess we'll see which way it pans out in a little bit!

[D3BBALL]

Mumbo predicts.

Tufts 67-65 over Catholic
Trinity 75-56 over Babson
Wesleyan 71-65 over NYU
Mary Washington 82-49 over Amherst.

Trinity bounces back. Tufts squeaks one out at home. Wes the better team against NYU. Amherst comes back down to earth. I'm rooting for Amherst, I just want the blowout prediction on the record in case it happens. I have Amherst in my Elite 8 for the bracket just for shyts.

Like the picks except Amherst. They are going to win