In the famous words of Drake… “I’m upset”. I’m so pissed off about that double overtime shit show I just witnessed in Bloomington, Indiana. I have seen some terribly officiated Badger basketball games (i.e. 2015 National Championship game) and that was possibly the worst ever.
I understand that the Badgers played terribly in the first half. I’m aware that we missed 6 free throws in the second OT and missed plenty of opportunities. HOWEVER there were many missed and bad calls. Yeah, they were both ways, but still.
Flagrant 1
HOW DO YOU FUCKING CALL THAT SHIT A FLAGRANT?! Happ literally boxed out and caught him. That’s accidental contact and just because he caught him in the jaw doesn’t mean that the team should get a pair of free throws and the ball. That might sound stupid, but go watch that fucking clip and tell me that in a 2 point game that you can actually justify calling that and giving the team that’s down those free throws and that ball.
I frankly do not give a single shit that a flagrant 1 is called in basically any contact to the head. That rule is way too general. Happ boxed out and turned around. He in no feasible way mean to make that foul. Watch the Indiana player after, he’s standing up for a few seconds then goes to the ground like he got laid out. That’s awful.
Missed F1-And-1
Almost immediately after the Flagrant 1 on Happ, he came back and had a beautiful spin move in the post and finished after a foul call. A beautiful play that ended in an inbounds play had Dan Dakich up in arms.
First, an excessive grab of Happ’s jersey should’ve led to a flagrant 1 call. At first, the replay looked to just show the jersey moving because of contact. On a second look, the Indiana defender had an absolute fistful of Happ’s number 22.
As the play went on, Happ spun and went to a beautiful reverse layup. After giving the glass a metaphorical kiss, Happ appeared to be headed to the free throw line. The refs had other thoughts and called the foul on the floor. A look at the full replay shows the fist full of jersey, the spin, the lean as Happ lifts the ball up, and a simultaneous hand from the referee standing on the baseline where the play happens directly in front of him. I will reiterate that after some discussion and no replay that the series of events led to an inbounds play for the Badgers.
Khalil Iverson
Iverson gets the ball in the post and goes up with 3 players around him. Normally not a great idea, but Iverson might be the most athletically gifted player in the conference. Jumping, running, strength, he might be the best. He doesn’t just get stuffed that easily. He does get stuffed though when three players absolutely cover Iverson going up like they were pitching a tent of arms over him. No call there. The rule says straight up, those defender’s arms were parallel to the floor.
Dan Dakich
I hate Dan Dakich. Scratch that, I now have more respect for the man than I did. In all of the above scenarios, Dakich was up in arms and voiced his displeasure. Trust me, I’ve watched plenty of “Dan Dakich blows Indiana” games, but that was not one of them. When the refs are so bad that Dakich isn’t even excited that his alma mater beat the 19th ranked team in the country because the refs were so poor, that’s how you know you just called a bad game.
What I Realized
You can’t change the calls. The Badgers lost because of some poor play late in the first half and the inability to make free throws.
BUT THIS TEAM IS VERY, VERY GOOD. The only teams stopping the Badgers are going to be an extremely talented team and themselves. I think the ceiling for this Badgers team is going to be the Sweet 16. I don’t see this team getting much further because they’re susceptible to these kind of bad games against teams they should dominate. Come March, you won’t want to face my Badgers especially if they get hot from the floor. Watch out, I’m warning you.
