Is it just me, or does there seem to be an increased number of player control fouls in the tournament? I mean, the games that I have seen, there have been 3 or 4 per game. I can't remember seeing that many at any other point during the season. The ones that I have seen have all been great calls, so I wonder if it is just the hightened activity of the players during tournament time. There don't seem to be quite the same number of no-calls on collisions either. Being in VA, during the season it is usually the ACC on the TV, so maybe it is just a difference in officiating styles, now that you have officials from all the conferences involved. It just seems odd to me, that's all. Wondered if anyone else has made a similar observation.

I've thought this too. In fact, I think in general there are not enough PC fouls called. Kudos for the tournament to make the PC calls.

I of course do not keep statistics on the issue, but I have seen a lot this year before the tournament. I do not recall that I have seen anymore than usual (previous years). I have just seen it called many times when I watched TV. I even saw it a lot when I went to the Big Ten Tournament this year. I also did not watch a lot of NCAA Tournament games to gauge what was called compared to the season. I was out of town from Friday to Sunday.

Peace

So basically, you're saying that you have no idea whether drothamel is correct or not? :D

There have been more:

Intentional fouls
Technical fouls
Player control fouls
Palming violations
Traveling violations

My GUESS is that they've been told, "This is the way we want it called," and if you don't comply, you don't work next round.

BktBall--

You bring up another point. I forgot to mention those things you said, but they come to mind now also. There was in intentional foul in one of the games yesterday (don't remember which one, NC State maybe?) which are pretty rare, and I have seen at least 3 palming/illegal dribbles. Again, I think that all of those calls were right on the money, but you are probably right about the officials acting under a directive from the top. I just wish we would see it during the regular season, I actually think it makes the games much better. Although I also realize that these are the best officials in the game, so we can't expect them to do every game. It is kind of the opposite of playoff officiating in most sports, where the officiating seems to get a bit looser. Not that the officiating in the tournament has gotten any tighter, it just seems more efficient, I guess I would say. Again, though, that is why these fellas are the best in the business.

Agreed. I've seen several T's on coaches that you haven't seen in the past.

Maybe teams are just digging in and playing better defense. It is tournament time...lose and go home.

Everybody has their own impression. Mine is that I have seen more examples of a lot of contact with no call than usual. I'm talking about rebounds, screens, and blocked shots with bodies hitting the floor and no whistle. No numbers or examples to back this up just my own "Wow, he got creamed!" observation a few times.

I have noticed that too. Last year, I could hardly bear to watch some games due to huge crashes that ended up with no calls. There have been many more PC calls in the tournament and also this year during the regular season.

I think the NCAA philosophy in the past has generally been to "let them play" as much as possible without any major felonies involved and also to let the coaches run and scream as much as they want so long as they stay somewhere in the arena. I think the NCAA powers that be finally saw that it was getting out of control and are trying to reign it back in now.

Z