Wow! Great game for Duke fans. I thought the reffing was great over all. Very tight on PC, which I approve of, and pretty balanced on everything else, I thought. Packer was his usual idiot, wasn't he? I especially enjoyed feeling superior about the remark that the player hadn't yet released the ball, so it shouldn't be a shooting foul. Where do they get these guys? But I wonder if the one block by Dunleavy which they replayed about 4 times was actually clean. It was hard to tell from the camera angle if there was body contact. Anybody with more experience than me have any comments?

I don't remeber that play. I recall only one questionable call. Wilcox was called for a foul on Battier behind the 3 point arc early in the 2nd half. The Lead, who appeared to be straight lined, called the foul. The block looked clean to me but he's calling the game, not me. :)

They didn't show a replay.

Packer hasn't got a clue about a lot of the rules. But even worse than that, we had to listen to Bill Walton again! :(

I liked Greg Gumbel's suggestion that Walton wear the mascot uniform!!

reply to rainmaker's thread
 

I have to agree with you with rainmaker. I thought the officiating was good overall. I felt bad the crew in the Duke/Maryland. With such a big rivalry and then at such a big game. With all of that I thought the crew did a very good job. I thought they had quite a few good no calls. Yes, I do agree with you about Packer and Walton. Oh well, I am so busy watching the officiating I have learned to tune them out.

Not as impressed....
 

In general, I was not exceeding impressed with the officiating. Mainly this is because of the non-calls in the middle of the court. Normally when someone trips someone or pushes them down, a foul is called. I don't recall specific plays there, but that's my general impression.

You asked about the Dunleavy block. I don't know the player names, but if that's the one I think it is (multiple replays and considerable talk about no contact), it was a foul. Notice the L comes out and immediately shows all that the foul was on the fore-arm. In the replay from over the defender's back, at the bottom of the screen, you could see that the defender hit the shooter's fore-arm with his arm, before the ball contact. The arm contact resulted in pulling the shooter's hand/arm away from the ball. It was a great call.

I didn't catch the elbow hold on Baxter's 5th, but the play looked very mild compared to what was not being called. But then, Mark had a different angle than we did.

I was impressed...
 

In my humble opinion, until I am officiating at that level and asked to do the Final four. You won't hear me say a thing about the officiating. IMHO unless we are doing that game we don't have room to talk. Just some thoughts...

Re: Not as impressed....
 

Yes, I agree with Mr. Ogg, however, on this forum, if you don't have 10 examples to back you up, you get "flogged" by the rest of the members.

The 5th foul on Baxter was a ridiculous call! I do remember that VERY well. I wonder if that official had said anything to Baxter during the game if he actually saw Baxter doing that earlier. The defender (Boozer, I believe) wasn't even trying to get around Baxter. What a shame that that was the 5th foul!

Re: Re: Not as impressed....
 

Thanks for this, Richard, I didn't look at the elbow region, and Ido have it on tape, so I'll go look again.

I suppose it's at least possible that the ref saw something on this play that we hadn't, as on the play above....

I agree with Juules
 

I think there was probably a lot more to this play than what we saw on the reply.