I don't think the refs are biased against NU. Honestly. And, I thought Maryland played stand up basketball. No chippiness at all.
I believe refs try to get it right and in doing so too often insert themselves into the game. Play on if it's close.
I also believe they struggle with close in/post play. It is possible for an offensive player to create contact with his arms on a shot when the defensive player goes straight up. I think the NCAA has legislated out good officiating judgement, attempted to legislate in precision which is impossible....and the game has suffered.
For years I thought NU was on the wrong end of lots of calls because, honestly, our players were lesser athletes (reaching, grabbing, etc.)
Collins has closed that gap.
I guess I'd like to see fouls and free throws home and away compared to other conference teams. Across 12-15 games it could indicate something (with lots of provisos re type of defense, etc.).
Maryland was walking all over the place last night and it was never called. Catch a pass, shuffle both feet, anchor a pivot foot, jab step with one foot and then move the other foot again without dribbling. No calls.
Boo gets hit with an intentional foul, which they removed upon review, after Ryan Young gets laid out in midair and somehow avoids serious injury when both his back and head smash across the floor. Just a common foul on that one.
Jones is set outside the circle when a Maryland guard, completely out of control, plows into him while trying to throw a pass in the other direction. Foul on Jones.
Ayala drives toward the paint, feels Spencer coming from behind, does the head-toss flop thing
back into the same direction Spencer was coming from. Foul on Spencer.
Kopp gets dropped to the floor after a clean rebound, turns to start dribbling up court, gets tripped, loses the ball. No call. Maryland scores.
Young goes up for a rebound, whichever Maryland big, maybe Smith (who ended up playing with foul trouble in the second) goes over his back, Young can't hold onto the rebound as a result, ball goes out of bounds, no call. Maryland ball.
All of these things happened in the first 10 minutes of the second half, when we still had an 8-14 point lead and were scoring just fine. Sure, the last few minutes they're hitting every free throw and raining 3s, but all of the above are
multiple possessions, opportunities for free throws piling up, points taken away from us, when we had been dominating the game from the opening tip. Think about: the Terps shot almost 30 free throws in a game where they took more than 30 3s! They had a single 2-point made field goal in the first 30 minutes or so of the game! We were outscoring them in the paint (obviously) by about 20 points for most of the game! And yet there's a 20-25 FTA disparity...in favor of the
other team?
I'll also note that nearly all of these calls were from one official, who I didn't recognize. At one point Collins pretty calmly went over to DJ Carstensen, a solid referee, to plead his case, and the dude came over to put his maw in Collins' face.
We're not able to close games, and there are plenty of things we could have done better. But all of this stuff was clear the whole second half, and it's what put Maryland in a position to get hot and pull away at the end.