Crimson Red Sports

This is something that bothers me every time I see it and I wanted to ask your thoughts on it. Saturday against Florida Bama shot 10 free throws to Florida's 26. Bama had 22 personal fouls to Florida's 9. Now I am not whining because I know that Bama is not a good team. But how is there such a huge disparity between these teams? Why do officials routinely call games differently for the 2 teams? This is not the first time I have noticed this, and it's not just against Bama. Bama has enough struggles in basketball without having to fight the refs too. If in a football game one team had 28 penalties and hte other had 3 there would be cries of bribing the refs. This is why I don't like basketball. The refereeing is so one-sided. Is anyone else bothered by such obvious one-sided officiating? Or is this just how basketball is?

IMO the home court advantage is bigger in basketball than any other sport. The home crowd and shooting in your own gym has something to do with it but the fact is in basketball the home teams get the calls their way.

Here is the  number of fouls called in Bama's last 6 games:

UF    Away    UF 9     Bama 22
Barn  Home  Barn 19   Bama 16
LSU  Away    LSU 19   Bama  27
Ms St Home  MS  19   Bama  19
USCE Home  USCE 22  Bama  16
UGA  Away   UGA  15  Bama  16
LSU  Home    LSU 23    Bama 16

The home team has less fouls in every game. LSU is the best example. At home we got the calls. at LSU they got the calls. We were 3-0 at home and 1-2 on the road with the only win coming at UGA.

It is not just fouls call either. The home team gets the 50/50 out of bounds calls too.

Refs should not be deciding who wins games but IMO it happens way too often in basketball.

Quite a few variables but try this on for size. Tough defense comes with a price. That doesn't explain the offensive fouls ( >:( ) yesterday but it makes a difference. Then, not all fouls are bad. If you may have noticed I called before the game for Gueye to use up his 5, and Jacobs use 3 or 4, on the Florida big guys when inside the paint. Rather than a easy layup for UF, make them go to the line (poor foul shooters on the season). Toss in the 3 or 4 intentional fouls that a team gets when trailing at the end of the game, and the margin is much smaller smaller. But you have to give the officials a break for being human, in that the home crowd pointing out every love tap gets their attention.

You have to give it to Florida for shooting 26-22. Even their big guys shot (I think) 7-8 from the line. Our problem was not so much how many fouls, but who they were used on and when. Boynton was well defended yesterday, but that is not the guy you want getting 8 attempts at the line. I wanted to go back and watch the replay, but I think Gueye wasted every one of his 4. Fouling a guy 6-8 feet out with his back to the goal is poor high school ball. They need to bring the hammer on easy lay ups and dunks and keep their hands up and use their body to block access to the goal to cut down on fouls. (more to be said here but you all get the picture) 

Agreed.  Bama gets the benefit-of-the-doubt calls at home and not away.  With emphasis on D, Bama does get more fouls in general than some other teams, although Florida  has the best D in the SEC.

I agree we play an agressive defense and that can cause fouls. However, are we less agressive at home when we win games and foul less? I don't think so, in fact, the point could be made we are more agressive at home. In the SEC the ref's favor the home team. I think the home crowd influences the ref's calls. I don't think it is intentional but it happens. I imagine this happens everywhere I just happen to be more familar with the SEC.

Historically, Florida, Syracuse, Duke & other schools have strong defenses, but are not known for fouling a lot. It's called coaching.


 :dog:

Florida averages 14 fouls per game. Syracuse 16, Duke 18. Alabama 17. CAG must be coaching them up pretty good.

When it comes to comparing opponents fouls compared to our fouls on them, we are 294th in the NCAA. In other words, the difference in the number of foul difference (we commit more fouls than our opponents) ranks us 294th worst in the NCAA (347 teams). Duke is 42nd, Syracuse is 158, & Florida is 322. These are just one year stats (2012-2013). I am amazed at Florida, but they shoot a higher FG percentage as a team which makes a difference. Here is a great site for NCAA BB stats:


http://www.teamrankings.com/ncaa-basketball/team-stat/opponent-fouls-category


Every kind of stat can be found there.

 :wave:

There are different styles of play. For example Florida shoots a ton of three point shots. You get fouled less on those shots. Power teams with dominate play in the paint draw more fouls. Until we have a dominate inside game we will not draw as many fouls as some teams do. Opponents play zone against us more than man-to-man. That also limits the fouls we draw.

The stats also show we draw more fouls at home than on the road.

And it's not just Bama that has this. It happens in other conrferences as well. Even in the NBA. In the 80's and 90's a Michael Jordan team would have a huge edge in FT shooting and PF's called. My point is that basketball officiating is entirely subjective and refreees never call a game the same for both teams. One team can throw a full body block and not get called, whole the other team will touch the wrist and get called. There is no concrete definition of what a foul is in basketball. Shaquille Oneal used to get away with murder because he ws so much stronger than everyone else.