gopherphan
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- Nov 17, 2009
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I was at the game in the student section...was really annoying they wouldnt let us stand...onto the game
We played excellent defense. We kept ourselves in it. Their big run started on some insanely skilled shots by Crawford, and then the ball just kept rolling for them because we couldnt answer. The two big reasons (i feel) why we lost today.
1. Refs. I know it sounds like a sore loser to blame them, especially with the foul totals being almost even, but there was a stretch in the first half where every last little speck of momentum the gophers could claim was theirs was sucked away. The second half's calls were alot more even but by then it was too late. Part I: the two (more?) out of bounds balls that got changed to xavier by the ref at half court were absolutely ridiculous. There were countless non calls on xavier players as they were all over the gophers, then when damien got even within a foot of the guy it was a foul. Missing traveling calls on crawford almost every time he touched the ball was just absurd. Youd think theyd pick up on it after you know the 4th or 5th time, but no. Part II: They targeted our players when we needed them most. They aimed to get damien out of there asap in the first half, calling some tacky stuff on him just because he kept crawford down. Having him out in the first half really killed what we had going. They all but destroyed westbrooks hot hand with the two pissant fouls on him early second half. they knew who was going to pull the upset for us and they just eliminated it.
2. Abysmal shooting. 30%? i dont think you can beat iowa with those numbers. In part i feel it wasnt their fault so much as it was the rims (xavier shot 34%) which i thought were absolutely ridiculously stiff. We saw 'bad ralph' today because his finesse hook shots and such were close, but the nasty rims bounced them back out again. they basically had to hit the shot almost perfectly through the middle and it just didnt happen for us.
I think that if the rims hadnt been so tight and the refs had stuck with the legit calls that they had made before they were turned over the gophers wouldve gone into halftime with a 10 point lead (since they were tied WITH all the crap) and the rest of the way wouldve been completely different.
We played excellent defense. We kept ourselves in it. Their big run started on some insanely skilled shots by Crawford, and then the ball just kept rolling for them because we couldnt answer. The two big reasons (i feel) why we lost today.
1. Refs. I know it sounds like a sore loser to blame them, especially with the foul totals being almost even, but there was a stretch in the first half where every last little speck of momentum the gophers could claim was theirs was sucked away. The second half's calls were alot more even but by then it was too late. Part I: the two (more?) out of bounds balls that got changed to xavier by the ref at half court were absolutely ridiculous. There were countless non calls on xavier players as they were all over the gophers, then when damien got even within a foot of the guy it was a foul. Missing traveling calls on crawford almost every time he touched the ball was just absurd. Youd think theyd pick up on it after you know the 4th or 5th time, but no. Part II: They targeted our players when we needed them most. They aimed to get damien out of there asap in the first half, calling some tacky stuff on him just because he kept crawford down. Having him out in the first half really killed what we had going. They all but destroyed westbrooks hot hand with the two pissant fouls on him early second half. they knew who was going to pull the upset for us and they just eliminated it.
2. Abysmal shooting. 30%? i dont think you can beat iowa with those numbers. In part i feel it wasnt their fault so much as it was the rims (xavier shot 34%) which i thought were absolutely ridiculously stiff. We saw 'bad ralph' today because his finesse hook shots and such were close, but the nasty rims bounced them back out again. they basically had to hit the shot almost perfectly through the middle and it just didnt happen for us.
I think that if the rims hadnt been so tight and the refs had stuck with the legit calls that they had made before they were turned over the gophers wouldve gone into halftime with a 10 point lead (since they were tied WITH all the crap) and the rest of the way wouldve been completely different.