The first round of March Madness has ended, and man, was it awesome. Thursday was probably the most exciting day of college basketball I've ever witnessed in my lifetime. Overtimes, buzzer beaters, a slew of upsets...the opening day of the tournament had it all. Ohio over Georgetown? Unreal. And it wasn't just that they won -- the team that finished 9th in the MAC conference (with a losing record, to boot) killed the Hoyas. It wasn't even close. Major bracket buster there, and I'm loving it. In Friday's action, Cornell took down Temple for their first ever NCAA win, and the Ivy League's first since 1998. The Big Red look legit, with a bunch of seasoned vets that play smart, can shoot the three (they were 9 for 23 against Temple, including a bunch of daggers that put the game out of reach in the second half) and a 7-foot center in Jeff Foote, who wouldn't look out of place playing in a BCS conference. I can definitely see Cornell beating Wisconsin (who barely squeaked by Wofford) and giving Kentucky a real run for their money in the Sweet 16.
Unfortunately, one game has already put a damper on the tournament for me and lots of other sports fans. Villanova will be playing in the second round after barely beating Robert Morris in overtime, but they shouldn't be. The officiating was an absolute disgrace. Simply put, the officials gave the game to Villanova -- and if you insist otherwise, then you're just deluding yourself. Here are a couple of absolutely ridiculous calls that went against Robert Morris that I took note of while watching the game:
-First half: Scottie Reynolds spins, crashes into Robert Morris player, falls down...and the Robert Morris guy gets called for the foul.
-6 seconds left in first half: 'Nova player grabs a rebound, falls down (never touched), loses the ball out of bounds...and a phantom foul gets called on Robert Morris.
But the absurdity was just getting started. Robert Morris was up by 8 with 4 minutes to play. After that, the officials apparently decided that they needed to get Villanova back in the game. Over these next four minutes, Villanova shot a total of 10 free throws, while Robert Morris shot 2. Scottie Reynolds shot 8 of those, getting "fouled" on four consecutive possessions (two or three of those could have easily been no-calls). With under three minutes to play, a Villanova defender had both his arms around the Robert Morris guy as a pass came his way. Which, you know, usually makes it hard for the guy on offense to catch the ball. Ball went out of bounds. If Villanova had had the ball, you know the foul would've been called immediately. But Villanova did not have the ball; Robert Morris did, and as a result, no foul was called. Villanova possession.
The refs shameless performance was just enough to get Villanova to tie the game up and send it into overtime. But they still weren't done -- there was one final play that epitomized all the bullshit that transpired in this game. Robert Morris was down four, and Villanova had the ball. A Robert Morris defender appeared to have tied up the Villanova guy -- and in fact, one of the refs who had the clearest look at the play called a jump ball. But then another official -- whose view was obstructed by about 3 other players -- burst onto the scene and called a foul. Which ref would win out? Obviously, the one with a bad view of the play who made the call against Robert Morris. Foul called, Villanova player goes to the line and makes two free throws. And although Robert Morris, fighting valiantly in the face of near impossible odds, somehow cut the deficit to one, they were never able to get over the hump, and they finally lost by three, 73-70.
For the game, Scottie Reynolds shot a total of 16 free throws while going 2 of 15 from the field. The foul disparity for the two teams was 31 to 19 (do I really need to tell you which team got called for 31 fouls and which team got called for 19?). The free throw disparity was 40 to 26. The disparity in the overall respect each team received from the refs was egregious.
Look, I can already hear the counterargument coming. "Villanova did what they needed to do to win. Robert Morris screwed up when it mattered most, which is why they lost the game." Yes and no. Robert Morris certainly did not help themselves by turning the ball over and missing shots at a couple of inopportune times. But seriously, when you're a number 15 seed, and you're going against not only a superior opponent, but the officials as well, don't you think you have the right to complain? Without those highly questionable foul calls that Scottie Reynolds received starting when Robert Morris was up by 8 with under 4 to play, Villanova does not win that game. It's that simple.
So was this pathetic display of officiating an overt conspiracy or just the inherent bias that seems to always occur when a popular team from a BCS conference plays against a small, relatively unknown mid-major? Honestly...I don't know. But as my buddy Ryan texted me after the game, "Big conferences pay the bills." And it's true. The NCAA would certainly prefer popular BCS teams with large fan bases to advance deep into the tournament, not unknown mid-majors with only a few thousand students. An upset or two is cute, maybe even wanted by the NCAA and CBS execs. But a team like Villanova...bounced in the first round? Nah, they don't want that. While watching the Georgetown-Ohio game later on, I couldn't help but wonder if the refs would pull a Robert Morris-like act on Ohio as the game got down to the wire. Fortunately, Ohio was so good -- and Georgetown so bad -- that it became a moot point (I actually thought the refs did a good job in this game, treating both teams fairly. You should be taking notes, Villanova officials).
The Robert Morris travesty wasn't the only example from these past two days of terrible calls going against the underdog mid-majors -- far from it. I saw a lot of poor calls and non-calls, and the overwhelming majority of them went against the lower seeds. Now I'm obviously not saying that every bad or missed call that went against the underdogs was part of a devious scheme to screw them over. I understand refs have a tough job, trying to keep up with a fast-paced game that often features ridiculous athletes sprinting up and down the court. But when refs do a poor job officiating in the tournament, it just seems that the calls almost always go against the less heralded underdog teams from non-BCS conferences.
Officials have a responsibility to uphold the integrity of the game. Every team -- whether you're Villanova or Robert Morris, Kansas or Lehigh, Duke or Arkansas-Pine Bluff -- should be entitled to a fairly reffed game. Robert Morris didn't receive that. There was something more going on in that game than just a few poor calls. And that's sad.
Villanova should not be in the second round of the tournament. I'll be rooting hard for St. Mary's to knock them out.
Hopefully Villanova won't have their personal refs to save them this time.
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