Refs Make Up For Years Of Duke Bias In One Night

Sunday, February 17, 2008

I know I make fun of Duke every chance I get but this just blew my mind. The Blue Devils lost to Wake Forest tonight and in the process the referees didn't just give Wake the advantage in Free Throws (+13)....they fouled out every Duke starter by the end of the game.


Yep....that's all five starters. I don't think I've ever seen that in my lifetime. Amazing.

Posted by Awful Announcing- at 10:06 PM

17 Comments:

Coach K should have picked up a T just for the hell of it to complete the whole deal.

Anonymous said...
Feb 17, 2008, 10:38:00 PM  

There IS a God!!!

If only He can do something about Tim Brando calling games...that dude makes my skin crawl.

/Bitter Michigan fan who didn't like Brando's attempt to marginalize the '98 Rose Bowl victory

Anonymous said...
Feb 17, 2008, 10:52:00 PM  

Midway through the second half Duke had 19 fouls and Wake had 18.

End of game: Duke 31, Wake 20.

The parade of Duke players to the bench was fairly comical.

And there was a Clemson-UNC game in Chapel Hill in 1998 that saw Clemson finish the final minute or so with only four players on the court. I am not sure if all the starters fouled out but that was a fun one with UNC shooting 59 FTs.

Anonymous said...
Feb 17, 2008, 11:15:00 PM  

Vitale must be absolutely apoplectic right now..

UnHoly Diver said...
Feb 17, 2008, 11:26:00 PM  

Back about 2-3 years ago a stats Ph.D. student did a "foul bias" study on the ACC. I can't remember what school he was from, but I do remember that the building that helped out the home team the most was.... The Joel.

That being said, Duke played like garbage and fouled a lot of guys with undisciplined defense.

Anonymous said...
Feb 17, 2008, 11:37:00 PM  

@trot nixon's hat:

Is there a link to that? I'm stunned by that. Must be the tie-dyed shirts & K&W Camera endorsements.

I can't remember who it was (it was two Pac-10 women's teams, so take it for what it's worth), but they finished the game 5 against 2.

Anonymous said...
Feb 17, 2008, 11:50:00 PM  

Not CAMERA...try CAFETERIA...since most of the Wake grads I know try to make it to the buffett before the sun sets because of their eyesight.

It's GOT to be the tie-dye!!!

Sam Walker said...
Feb 18, 2008, 12:01:00 AM  

My mistake. I'll gladly own anything that a 12-pack of Newcastle will get me to say/type.

Anonymous said...
Feb 18, 2008, 12:18:00 AM  

i cant remember which wake player it was a few years back but his mother was a rather large black woman, probably three and a half bills, and she wore one of those tie dye shirts along with a big wicker cowboy hat, and ALWAYS had a bojangles box in her hand. the camera always cut to her, i think she set black people back twenty years.

BackBergtt said...
Feb 18, 2008, 1:03:00 AM  

uneducated hoops fans.
WHY should the fouls be even at the end?
makes NO SENSE. do you want the refs to keep track by looking at the scoreboard?
oops! that team is ahead 3 fouls, can't call that foul even though the guy is bleeding and screaming in pain for the other team.

Anonymous said...
Feb 18, 2008, 1:15:00 AM  

Yeah, it really is somewhat misleading. Henderson and Paulus both fouled out in the end game fouling intentionally.

Apparently, this is the fifth time in Duke's history their 5 starters fouled out, and I personally think K made sure it happened in the end to use it to say that Duke gets no calls.

Jared said...
Feb 18, 2008, 2:51:00 AM  

The curse of Skip Prosser claims its last victim.

Feb 18, 2008, 8:14:00 AM  

Nice to see the refs have finally learned to call fouls for flopping. If they actually were consistent, every Duke starter would foul out every game. It was definitely refreshing to see this and perhaps there is some hope that they'll call a better game the next time Duke and UNC play.

Cam said...
Feb 18, 2008, 8:40:00 AM  

If you want to see why there is a foul disparity, you can often look to the three-point shooting. Duke jacked 28 threes to Wake's 11. A team won't get fouled as much with a +17 on three point shooting.

Anonymous said...
Feb 18, 2008, 9:38:00 AM  

Trot Nixon, I've seen that website that you're talking about with the grad student keeping track of the home court advantage. This isn't the same website, but this keeps track of the overall foul and free throw differential through the conference during the last decade or so. So far this season, Duke and UNC have been called for 57 less fouls than their opponents, and attempted 125 more free throws.

http://packsmack.com/InfamousACCIndexCard/

Anonymous said...
Feb 18, 2008, 10:39:00 AM  

Whoever plays Duke next is screwed, they wont even be able to breathe on a Duke player without being called for a foul.


I didnt watch this game, so I'm guessing that Duke's starters played much less than they normally would have, which means Wake's starters are only slightly better than Duke's bench. Disclaimer: This comment was made by a Duke hater, just an observation made from the final score.

Anonymous said...
Feb 18, 2008, 7:18:00 PM  

"Nice to see the refs have finally learned to call fouls for flopping. If they actually were consistent, every Duke starter would foul out every game. It was definitely refreshing to see this and perhaps there is some hope that they'll call a better game the next time Duke and UNC play."

Cam Jones, the homer ref job at the Dean Dome was the only reason UNC was in that game at all. At one point - shortly before UNC started fouling on purpose - UNC had shot 26 FTs to Duke's 11. Even with ~2 minutes of intentional fouls UNC shot more FTs than Duke on the game.

Not unusual though for a UNC fan to have no idea what he's talking about.

Anonymous said...
Feb 19, 2008, 8:05:00 AM  

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