Aboya's technical

Right, like I'm going to take the judgment of PX officials over Alfred. These are the same idiots who thought that there was nothing wrong with throwing a basketball at another player's face.

I know Brian has commented before on the arrogance of Pac-10 officials, but Dave Libby takes the cake. What a joke he is. Every game he does he is stealing money.

I thought they were called U-dub, they should be called U-Thug, What a classless looking team. The only
way U-thug wins is with help from the ref's. Nice foul on Alfred when Brockmen whack him in the face and cut his head. Wait till U-Thug plays on the road or a netural site, they won't get all the foul calls. Nice football team U-Thug 0-12.

OK. Everyone here knows I am a USC fan. I didn't see the play, and I can't wait to see it, but I have a VERY HARD time believing Alfred Aboya taunted anybody. I totally concur with Coach Howland that its not Aboya's nature to do that.

And of course anyone who has followed the Pac-10 for ANY length of time, whether Bruin, Trojan, or anyone else knows Dave Libby is pompous, arrogant, and full of himself. (I know they all mean the same but when it comes to Libby it must be emphasized.)

The good thing for any team thinking of the Final Four, you know the Pac 10 refs will be done at least the week before because they always rate so poorly.

Ucla players obviously have some ill will towards UW especially Venoy Overton. Collison got a tech getting in Overton's face after Overton and Shipp got in a scuffle last year. And in this game it appeared several bruins were talking with/glaring at Overton.

I didn't get to see the play yet either, but I agree that Aboya is so even-tempered that it seems very unlikely that he really taunted Overton. It sounds like a misunderstanding to me.
Since we're talking drama here, anyone see Slumdog Millionaire? Good flick.

Wa-ha, my husband and I just got back from watching Slumdog Millionaire. I needed something to get my mind off of this game. Yeah, great film; loved it!

It looked like Alfred got whacked by Overton on the cut that Brockman gave him. He may have said something...but I don't think the whol play was worthy of a Technical foul , especially at that point in the game.

Libby also called the extremely questionable foul against Arizona's Hill on a pick and roll with about ten seconds left to take away any chance of Arizona winning Wednesday night. I don't know the guy off the court, but ON the court, he's a prima donna of the first (or last) order. The refs were NOT why we lost the game - Udub's guards were in Darren's face and Darren and our guards were playing off their men giving them far too much space - seemed like Drew Gordon was right, Washington (except of course for Alfred) just played a lot hungrier than we did - but Libby is just awful

Nothing good ever comes from a Libby led officiating Crew! Wash was hungrier in this game but come on...the free throw stat is ridiculous! Libby needs to retire or the Pac 10 needs to throw him out!!!!

WE GET A DO OVER 2/19/2009 (SMILE) LET US SEE THE FOULSHOT COUNT THEN.............SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE SUPER MOVIE

On the replay it looked like Aboya leaned over him and said something, but I doubt the refs heard what he said. There were some phantom foul calls, and this was a phantom technical.

UW still deserved to win the game, but we'll get another shot at them. We'll pick up the intensity against them at home.

Husky Fan Here

I like reading opponent fan comments after the game and discovered this site this morning. I have a couple things to add:

1. Refs - If you think this was bad officiating, you should have seen the USC v UW game on Thursday...it was horrible...both ways. The called a double foul...a block and a charge on the same play. I have never seen that one before. I do think a loud boisterous home court probably gets the home team a couple extra calls a game on average but that was not UCLA's problem here. It was a combination of the UCLA guards not being able to stay in front of the Husky Guards and you did not have anyone down low who could handle Brockman. I think Thomas, Dentmon & Brockman shot 32 combined free throws. Washington was just more aggressive than UCLA and earned the those fouls. We all know when an aggressive offensive players goes to the hole, most times he gets fouled even if he is the one who generates the contact.

With regards the Brockman-Aboya situation. This is something we all see in every game. An offensive player down low initiates contact, jumps into the defensive play and gets the foul call. The only difference here is the blood. By the time the refs saw the blood, the foul was already called.

2. Technical - They played a decent replay of the exchange on TV up here in the bay area. Now you could not hear what was said, but as they say a picture is worth a 1000 words. Overton was laying on the floor and AA leaned over and said something. The look on his face clearly indicated it wasn't to say "can I help you up" and I did not see AA reach his hand out. Now regardless of what you say, if an opponent is laying on the ground and you get in his face, 9 times out of 10 you are going to get T'd up, regardless of your intent or what you said. I am sure AA is a good guy, but even good guys get caught up in the heat of the moment. He just made a bad decision. No big deal

3. UW Thugs - On multiple boards on this site I have seen husky fans called classless and the team called thugs. To the person that ran into some abnoxious fans after the game...every teams has some % of stupid/classless fans. Don't judge an entire group of people based on you limited contact with them.

Classless Team Robert. This UW team plays tough but is far from classless. They play in your face defense and pound the ball into the lane. This does not make us Thugs. Every player on our team is playing with heart, diving for balls and playing man to man tough Defense. Each team plays to it's strengths and these are ours. Unfortunately it is UCLA's weakness...hence the foul differences and final score.

I wish you all well...until our next meeting :-)

Quick question for Dan if he's still around -

If the Huskies play a style of basketball that's prone to receiving foul calls, how can you explain the fact that they were NINTH in the Pac-10 in foul-shots taken before this weekend?

I would argue that UCLA was fairly aggressive early (especially Jrue Holiday, who took the ball into the paint pretty much every time he got it) - but didn't get any foul calls. That causes a team to begin backing off their drives. Not because they wouldn't - but because the officiating is one-sided enough that they have to adjust their game to make up for it.

I think you need to check your stats my friend. They are NINTH....IN THE NATION. They are first in the conference. Washington has attempted 528 free throws this year with Oregon a distant 2nd at 464. UCLA is ahead of only Washington State and Oregon State with 329 free throw attempts. See the official stats on the website below.

http://www.pac-10.org/sports/m-baskbl/stats/2008-2009/confldrs.html

http://statsheet.com/mcb/teams/stats/ft?season=2008-2009

UCLA is tied for 270th in the country with William & Mary, Coppin State, North Florida and Eastern Michigan.

This was not a 1 game aborition(sp??). This is a trend based on style of play and aggressiveness. You are not complaining that all the refs are against you....are you? UCLA relies way to much on the outside shot.

Dan R,
Although I agree that UW deserved to win and get the foul shots. 43 attempts is absurd. UW was in the bonus before the first tv timeout. It's not just fans, Jrue Holiday and Howland questioned the foul disparity. This same thing happens every year in seattle.

PS UW is a bunch of thugs. Only a thug team tries to organize fights at offsite hotels with another team (last year with the beavers).

Name calling and blaming the refs after a loss...sounds like a sore loser. Don't think I remember any complaints about the officials last year after the crap call on Lawrence Hill last year that gave you the conference title.

Dan - UW is 9th in the country NOW. Those 528 include the 83 from this weekend. You honestly don't think that's changed their spot in the ranking?

They also tend to give up a lot of free throws, because they play at the 13th fastest pace in the country. The Bruins, in comparison, give up very FEW foul shots per game, and take few, largely because they play at such a slow pace.

No matter how you slice it, the *disparity* was unusual, and it happened twice in home games in which Washington was significantly outscored aside from the foul line. From the floor, the Bruins outscored the Huskies by 15, and the Trojans outscored the Huskies by 14.

On an unrelated side note, it's "aberration." Not that it detracts (or assists) from your point, but that is the spelling you're looking for, I think.

As for complaints with the officials, UCLA has had plenty - just ask Alfred Aboya's face. I think Tim Morris knows what I'm referencing.

BruinSanFran:

the osu incident you're referring to last year was not instigated by the uw players... the night before the game at osu, a group of beaver players came onto the court while uw was shooting around after practice and attempted to start a fight. it was in the papers, you could probably find articles about it.

Before this weekend, washington was averaging 26 fta's a game. Even if you give them their average in those games, the are #1 in the Pac-10. I will agree that attempting 40 is not usual, but it is not that uncommon. If you take away the 8 free throws UCLA game them in the last few minutes, they were only 9 above their average, which is perfectly within the norm given the fact the UCLA could not keep our guards from beating them off the dribble and they could not handle Brockman.

The officials had no influence on the winner of this game so in my opinion it is a non-issue. Rather than complaining about the officials, you should be debating how your team can play better, especially down the stretch when they continually get outplayed. You have a poor low post presence and take two many three's. UCLA is soft. That is not saying that you are not a good team with talented players. You lost a lot of talent last year and do not seem to have found your rhythm this year. No big deal, you will make the tourney and have plenty of time to grow.

With regards to Tim Morris. He is one of the nicest people you will ever want to meet. I am sure he regrets how that occurred, but it was not a foul, just an unfortunate decision made under pressure. He apologized after the game.

"If you take away the 8 free throws UCLA game them in the last few minutes, they were only 9 above their average"

... As opposed to -leaving in- all the free throws that counted towards the "average" but came as a result of comeback attempts in UW's previous games? If we remove the 8 FTAs at the end of the UCLA game, you'd need to go back and take out every single FTA from all of UW's previous games that was made in a late-game comeback attempt, and then readjust that 26 FT average.

Again, it's not that UW shot 43. They shoot plenty of free throws. That's because they play at a very fast pace, and have lots of possessions per game. UCLA plays at a very slow pace. They're not great at drawing fouls, but they're not terrible - and they don't commit that many, either. I'm not bothered by UW getting 43 FTAs in a game, or UCLA getting 15. Both of these, I will expect to see fairly often.

What I did -not- expect to see is those two events happening in the same game, because UCLA rarely has a massively negative FTA margin.

"The officials had no influence on the winner of this game so in my opinion it is a non-issue."

... Again - UCLA outscored UW by FIFTEEN in non-foul shots. Explain to me how the officials had no influence? You could argue that their calls were correct. I obviously don't agree, but you could do so. But you're stretching WAY too far in claiming they didn't influence the outcome - it's not like Washington beat UCLA by 45, and scored a dozen more points at the line. Washington beat UCLA by 11, and scored 26 more points at the line.

"Rather than complaining about the officials, you should be debating how your team can play better, especially down the stretch when they continually get outplayed."

UCLA struggles offensively down the stretch. This is true, and has been the case the last few games. What is -unusual- is that they struggled defensively as well (something they had NOT done until this game). Let's examine why, shall we?

From "67-66 UW," the Huskies scored 8 of their next 12 points in the run that salted away the game from the charity stripe (emphasis on charity). This, all BEFORE the Bruins began to foul intentionally, as Mike Roll's foul on Justin Dentmon for the last two freebies of this run came 20 seconds after UCLA's previous shot attempt.

The Bruins have, and will, live or die by their defense. When the offense goes cold, the defense (usually) stays strong - and can help spark the offense, as well. When UW parades to the free throw line, that disrupts UCLA's offensive game plan (which is designed around their assumption of tough defense causing misses and TOs), and lengthens the margin the Bruins must make up once they start making shots again.

As for Mr. Morris, I'm sure he's a nice guy. He chucked a basketball off Alfred Aboya's face, intentionally - a fact obvious from the replay. Obvious enough that the Pac-10's official response was that Aboya 'jumped into the ball,' a claim provably hilariously wrong by simply watching the video. Aboya jumps in the air, AND LANDS BEFORE THE BALL IS THROWN. This is the point in time when it would be -easiest- to avoid the face, as he has just landed from a jump and cannot easily move immediately again.

It was a dirty play. If you can believe Aboya - one of the classiest players in the country - deserved to get 'T'd up for taunting, then I think it's just as easy to believe Morris decided to chuck one off Al's face.