SLU Fans fed up with A-10 Officiating

[Muskie]

I've reviewed some SLU fan sites and they are outraged with the officiating during the Dayton Game. Two possible theories they've floated:

1. The A-10 has told the refs to protect the top teams for tourney bid time.
2. The refs are gambling or influenced by gambling.

I'm not ready to make the leap to #2.

[American X]

1. The A-10 has told the refs to protect the top teams for tourney bid time.

That's fine by me. Make up for getting hosed at Bonaventure and Duquesne over the years.

[xuwin]

I don't think the A-10 officials favor anybody intentionally. I think they are just bad. It's a major conference with mid major officials.

[American X]

I doubt Mike Sanzere & Co. are competent enough to deliberately favor one team over another.

[Drew's Crew]

I don't think the A-10 officials favor anybody intentionally. I think they are just bad. It's a major conference with mid major officials.

haha how topical

[D-West & PO-Z]

One thing I have always noticed at XU games is how some XU fans, and its actually a lot, complain about every call made against Xavier. It is very funny/annoying. It is all over the arena, but there are a couple really bad people in my section 202. Not every possible call can be wrong, I mean c'mon people. My friend and I were talking about it at the Virginia game. I am used to it by now but visiting fans must think we are crazy. And its not the close calls either that the fans get upset about, its a lot of times pretty obvious calls that the fans get upset about.

[blobfan]

Complaining about the refs is sort of a sport within the sport, isn't it. I do agree the A-10 refs are pretty cruddy, though. If I can see the foul and they can't, then something is really wrong. I never played the game, only started watching regularly about 5 years ago, and spend much time watching the scoreboard screen (it's in my line of site). If I saw the foul it must have been pretty obvious.

My favorite is when 2/3 of the arena is screaming "travel" but it takes the refs 5 seconds to catch up and make the official call. That's assuming they ever get around to it. Make-up calls are another favorite of mine. They miss something blatant, like when a player gets hit so hard in the head he stands in the middle of the court rubbing his eyes until time out is called, then they turn around and call something ticky-tack. And somehow that's supposed to be fair?

[PM Thor]

I was wondering about this aspect that might be overlooked.

With Xavier playing a very daunting OOC schedule, how many of those games were actually called by A10 refs? I honestly do not know.

But with so many big games in the OOC schedule, I would assume about half were called by other conference refs. So, I truly believe that Xavier was allowed to play more, with a lot more physicality being allowed in our OOC games. If this is true, then I think that this might actually hurt Xavier during conference play, because as we have seen, A10 refs call a lot of games very tightly (badly, but tightly). I do think that A10 refs are consistent. Sure, consistently bad, but consistent on both ends of the court. They do call a lot of ticky tack fouls, and with a bunch of physical games X has played so far, I wonder how X will be able to turn down that physicality.

[DC Muskie]

Maybe SLU should complain about how much their team sucks right now and their high priced coach doesn't think he can coach the current group of players. Just a thought.

[waggy]

SLU fans have complained about A10 officials from day 1. No way to comment since the game wasn't televised. I've become numb to officiating over the years I think. Bad calls are just part of the game.

There are only two games that stick in my mind with regards to officiating... X vs. Indiana in the tournament when Gillen was coach; and X vs. Duke to end the run. We were robbed, and in my mind intentionally. Most definitely the Indiana game.