Spartans Lose Again; Home Court Advantage Out of Control
I won’t stop writing about this. I know no one else really cares, but I do. I love basketball and I hate to see it played by officials and not the players.
Going into this season I though the Michigan State Spartans were an over-rated team, but still had the potential to make a deep run in the tournament.
The Spartans are awful on the road in the Big Ten, and dropped to 2-5 with another lackluster performance against the Iowa Hawkeyes. MSU played well in stretches, but allowed Iowa to go on a 20-6 run in the first half and a 14-4 run in the second half.
Tom Izzo and his team deserved to lose the last two games. They played with less energy than Minnesota on Saturday and had poor execution and shot selection against the Hawkeyes.
MSU is now 18-7 and has lost two straight for the second time this year in the Big Ten. Even if State wins out they will be 11-5; their worst finish in the Big Ten since 2001-2002 season.
Now that I am done bashing my alma mater it’s time to bash the officials in the Big Ten. These officials make the game about them, whether it is missed or blatantly incorrect calls or over-acting on change of possessions. Take a look at these numbers. They are ridiculous.
The top seven teams in the Big Ten are 31-5 at home. At the Breslin Student Event Center MSU has out-shot its opponents from the free throw line 63/73 to 25/38. However, on the road MSU has been out-shot at the charity stripe 108/159 to 79/111.
Certainly the home team will play with more energy and more aggression, but teams can win on the road too. MSU is a fast break and attack the hoop team. The rest of the Big Ten are slow down, time possession teams. It is hard to imagine that the latter style of play would get more foul calls than the former.
The disparity in fouls is not only against/for MSU. Indiana out-shot U of M 16/25 to 4/5 earlier in the season. They out-shot Wisconsin 15/23 to 8/16 recently. In three of Iowa’s wins at home, they have out-shot opponents 29/47 to 51/69. However, their trip to MSU, they lost the free point battle 16/18 to 7/12.
The Spartans have been out-played in the last two games. They deserved to lose. However, home court advantage in the Big Ten has gotten out of control. Let the players decide the game.
posted by az at 12:00 AM
5 Comments:
Th th that's what I have been saying all year. It also is true in Big 10 football. The officials believe that they are the game. They read in the papers about "home court" advantage and it spills over into how they call the game.
I agree 100 percent. It's frustrating as a fan to watch games the players have no control over. ACC refs were suspended for this, why hasn't there been a bigger outcry over big ten refs doing the same?
I also read this morning the Pistons are close to finishing a deal to trade Darko and Carlos Arroyo. Obviously the Pistons office must have read your blog.
And finally, that is an awesome picture of drama queen
yes emily you are correct. the only way the pistons would even consider making a trade with carlos arroyo is because the piston's front office read leave of absence.
it's the only logical conclusion. think about it, the spartans played better after i said neitzel needed to improve. the steelers won the super bowl after i explained how they won in tecmo super bowl. and i can only imagine bush will be impeached after i wrote about it.
i had no idea about the acc refs. that's interesting. i imagine that happened b/c dick vitale couldn't stand to see duke not get every call, every time.
isn't the drama queen great? he's fun to watch and he actually calls a game okay, better than eddie hightower.
yeay dad, the big ten is bad in football too. i love the offensive pass interference calls that come on the road. the foul discrepancies are almost making the games unbearable to watch
Ohio State just lost to Wisconsin. The game wasn't on TV, but I did see the stats and Ohio State was below 30% from the perimeter. I would imagine that the refs were bad too.
well dj, i was very interested in this game. if the ohio state lost, msu would be back in the hunt. why? because under bo ryan, wisconsin has only lost two home games in the big ten, both to illinois. no one can win there. iowa goes there and will lose. if iowa can get a fifth loss, osu, msu and iowa will tie for first. not too bad...assuming msu wins out, which they most likely will....i hope.
the fouls were pretty interesting. wisconsin was 20/31 and osu was 17/19. so they shot 12 more free throws. look at the fouls, osu 23, wisconsin 16.
i'm not sure if the refs decided this game, but look at the other game, osu out-shot wisconsin 14/25 to 11/15.
i don't know. doesn't seem right.
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