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Originally Posted by Camron Rust
I'm not so much accusing them conciously/purposefully of helping UNC back in the game. Its pretty common for officials to shift all close calls to favor a team that is getting pounded...it can be a good practice to manage the game. I'm not saying they did any different. I've done it and I don't know if there is an official who hasn't done it. It was looking like the game was over. However, care has to be taken to not do that too early...especially when the game has impact that this one does. In doing it too early myself, I've seen a team turn it around and threaten to win. Would they have done so without my earlier favorable calls? Maybe, maybe not, but I sure helped them. Now, I wait a little longer before shifting the threshold of the close calls. Would UNC have turned it around without some of those generous calls? Maybe. But they did get the benefit of a few.
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I agree with everything you say, Camron, but would add that I think this happens as much sub-conciously as it does conciously for many officials. I thought exactly as you did - that for a period of time in that game several close calls (none of them were atrociously bad at all, IMO) all went in UNC's favor.
That said, KU did themselves no favors at the end of the first half and just played pretty stupidly at times, doing a whole lot more to let UNC back in the game than any of those close calls did.