[2006alum]

I watched the Adia Barnes' press conference for with she was reprimanded by the Pac 12.  Barnes did indeed keep coming back to the officiating over and over.  She put in the obligatory "but it was on us to adjust" and "we have to know how to deal with it" and "I bet others feel that way when they come to Arizona" but it was abundantly clear that she blamed the loss on officials calling the game too tightly on her bigs.

She came back over and over the the disparity of fouls called on Oregon vs on Arizona.

Here is another theory.  There were way more fouls called on Arizona because that is how Arizona plays, and they deserved it.  There should be a price to be paid for being overly physical.  So my admiration for Adia Barnes took a hit--didn't see her as a whiner before.

Now, on the other side, my estimation of Kelly Graves just dropped a few more notches--more seriously than Barnes.  I thought he was better than his in game behavior suggests.  If you believe what was said about him-and he doesn't deny it other than to say it was "overblown"--he was swearing at Barnes loudly during the game, in earshot of the players on the court.  Absolutely disgusting.  Barnes gave him the finger after the game.  That probably made it worse.

Back when Graves was at Gonzaga I used to think of him as a classy guy.  But perhaps Oregon corrupts everyone it touches now.

Two coaches besmirched by that game.

Color me surprised, all the way around: neither Barnes nor Graves looked as heated in the final minutes of that game as their behavior apparently reflected. Or maybe PAC-12 network just edited it out to avoid anything unseemly being shown on TV.

Having watched the game, I will say this: it was a Missy special, with lots of ticky tacky fouls called. I don't necessarily disagree with 81Alum that some of Arizona's players tend to play pretty aggressively (I actually think their guards moreso than their forwards), but I actually did think some of the calls that went against Arizona's bigs were quite technical and discretionary. (Reese, for example, is hardly what I think anyone could call an overly physical player, and I don't really recall Ware getting dangerously out of control, either.)

Missy has a tendency to call fouls on defenders where they aren't impeding the natural movement of the ball handler and/or the apparent touch is pretty marginal. I think that's more appropriate when, for example, the handler is bringing the ball up the floor and the defending guard is getting handsy, because if you don't call those, the incentive to push the limit to get a steal can get out of hand. (I think the Hulls are often, sometimes fairly and sometimes unfairly, called for those kind of tacky fouls.)

But Missy also calls a lot of marginal contact in/around the paint in ways that isn't in any way policing the physicality of the game, and I do think those fouls really hurt Arizona in keeping their bigs on the bench. And I think in general the kinds of bigs that get away with more in those circumstances are the Sabally types who are physically big and can impose their presence with their body rather than their arms, rather than the Reese and Ware types who get more spacing with their limbs. Those kinds of foul calls hurt Alanna Smith a lot in the past and sometimes still hurt Brink. They're not abjectly bad calls, but they're not what I'd call the core (as opposed to penumbra) of what I'd be looking for if I'm reffing a game. And if you call them like Missy does, it will definitely hurt a team like Arizona more than a team like Oregon.

Just my two cents. Either way, neither cussing nor middle fingers are ever warranted by coaches, IMHO. One more reason I'm thankful we have Tara, who always seems to stay cooler and calmer than I do as a mere fan screaming at the TV!

[2006alum]

I watched the Adia Barnes' press conference for with she was reprimanded by the Pac 12.  Barnes did indeed keep coming back to the officiating over and over.  She put in the obligatory "but it was on us to adjust" and "we have to know how to deal with it" and "I bet others feel that way when they come to Arizona" but it was abundantly clear that she blamed the loss on officials calling the game too tightly on her bigs.

She came back over and over the the disparity of fouls called on Oregon vs on Arizona.

Here is another theory.  There were way more fouls called on Arizona because that is how Arizona plays, and they deserved it.  There should be a price to be paid for being overly physical.  So my admiration for Adia Barnes took a hit--didn't see her as a whiner before.

Now, on the other side, my estimation of Kelly Graves just dropped a few more notches--more seriously than Barnes.  I thought he was better than his in game behavior suggests.  If you believe what was said about him-and he doesn't deny it other than to say it was "overblown"--he was swearing at Barnes loudly during the game, in earshot of the players on the court.  Absolutely disgusting.  Barnes gave him the finger after the game.  That probably made it worse.

Back when Graves was at Gonzaga I used to think of him as a classy guy.  But perhaps Oregon corrupts everyone it touches now.

Two coaches besmirched by that game.

Color me surprised, all the way around: neither Barnes nor Graves looked as heated in the final minutes of that game as their behavior apparently reflected. Or maybe PAC-12 network just edited it out to avoid anything unseemly being shown on TV.

Having watched the game, I will say this: it was a Missy special, with lots of ticky tacky fouls called. I don't necessarily disagree with 81Alum that some of Arizona's players tend to play pretty aggressively (I actually think their guards moreso than their forwards), but I actually did think some of the calls that went against Arizona's bigs were quite technical and discretionary. (Reese, for example, is hardly what I think anyone could call an overly physical player, and I don't really recall Ware getting dangerously out of control, either.)

Missy has a tendency to call fouls on defenders where they aren't impeding the natural movement of the ball handler and/or the apparent touch is pretty marginal. I think that's more appropriate when, for example, the handler is bringing the ball up the floor and the defending guard is getting handsy, because if you don't call those, the incentive to push the limit to get a steal can get out of hand. (I think the Hulls are often, sometimes fairly and sometimes unfairly, called for those kind of tacky fouls.)

But Missy also calls a lot of marginal contact in/around the paint in ways that isn't in any way policing the physicality of the game, and I do think those fouls really hurt Arizona in keeping their bigs on the bench. And I think in general the kinds of bigs that get away with more in those circumstances are the Sabally types who are physically big and can impose their presence with their body rather than their arms, rather than the Reese and Ware types who get more spacing with their limbs. Those kinds of foul calls hurt Alanna Smith a lot in the past and sometimes still hurt Brink. They're not abjectly bad calls, but they're not what I'd call the core (as opposed to penumbra) of what I'd be looking for if I'm reffing a game. And if you call them like Missy does, it will definitely hurt a team like Arizona more than a team like Oregon.

Just my two cents. Either way, neither cussing nor middle fingers are ever warranted by coaches, IMHO. One more reason I'm thankful we have Tara, who always seems to stay cooler and calmer than I do as a mere fan screaming at the TV!