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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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And wow, we as officials are all wrong. We thought that when idiot coaches yell at us about cheating their team, that they knew nothing about the game. According to Mr. Rust he makes practice of awarding the team that is behind with close calls. YIKES!!! I often officiate some youth league games, so to say that I have never done this would be lying. Last week, youth tournament, 4-5th grade girls...team down 32-6...I point the same direction on every held ball and every close out of bounds play. I think everyone understood. To do this at the varsity level or in this case the Elite 8 is IGNORANT!!! I doubt that there was one person in that building or in front of the TV that didn't think Carolina would make a run. They had the highest scoring offense in the country.
On one hand you want to say it's okay to do what you think the officials did (which was slant calls in Carolina's favor) and in the next breathe say I think I would have waited a little longer (lol...40-12) and then hold the officials accountable for the score "being close." Thats NUTS!!