MBB: Coast 2 Coast Athletic Conference

[Pat Coleman]

No CAC refs will be working that regional, not with two CAC teams in it.

I know they don't usually cut the nets down after a regional but I think it might be appropriate for the winner to cut up the floor and take it home with them.

[cugrad]

Let me try this again. Cards, good luck on Friday evening in your game against Widener! Remember, if you play hard, good things will happen!!

GO CARDS!!!

About the floor, I doubt that it will play a big part in determining the winner between these two talented teams.

About Catholic's depth, I agree that using 11 or 12 bodies isn't necessarily an advantage.  Catholic is pretty solid through nine or ten players. The guys after that are not bad, but there is a bit of a drop from the top five.

[Matt Letourneau]

Well sure there's a drop, if CUA gets in foul trouble (which is not inconceiveable trying to guard a big monster) than its a huge advantage of what teams normally put out there.  Spirenberg isn't exactly Ben Wallace (ha!) but he's a better defensive option against a big guy that most teams would be able to bring off the bench just because of his sheer size, for instance.

I've sort of emphasized depth because it sounds like it might be an area of advantage for Catholic--if Widener isn't going to go that deep, Catholic can try to keep it up tempo and run the floor.  They have the personnel to keep everybody fresh.

I don't even want to THINK about seeing Gene again this year.  Incidentally, can anyone confirm he was the ref involved in the Gally incident?  Now, I'm in no way, shape or form defending going after a ref in any situation (and I already publicly said that Gally should step up security), but leave it to Gene to make that kind of call to decide the game.  It's exactly his MO. 

No idea what they're eating over at CUA these days, but it sure looks a lot better than what was there when I went there---no nice new student center in my time.

[cuabigdog]

Matt..same food , different building ...


CUA best of luck fri against Widener..i only hope that the officials are better this year than in 2001  when Pat Malonely had his 4th foul called against him and he wasn't within 15 feet of the action....

Low Turnovers and Made Freethrows  WIN Games !!!

GO CARDS !!!!

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Matt - I don't think it was Gene.

I have seen him many times this year and we always talk before and/or after the game (even during... funny story I will share sometime between the two of us while I was announcing). And he never brought it up. He has brought up other things that have nothing to do with the game at hand... so I would say no.

However, he also might not have wanted to talk about it.

[kitchenrat]

I know they don't usually cut the nets down after a regional but I think it might be appropriate for the winner to cut up the floor and take it home with them.

As long as they don't take it all. I want to give my $100 to the College for a patch of kitchen floor to hang on my wall!

[rokman]

Cards, good luck tomorrow evening in your game against Widener! Remember, if you play hard, good things will happen!!

GO CARDS!!!

Does anybody remember the NCAA tournament game when Catholic played at Widener during their National Championship season? That was an interesting game.   

CUGRAD,

Definitely remember that game.  Wonder if that ref will be carrying cooking utensils with him this weekend?

[manofgor24]

I talked with Gene before the CUA/Sal game to see how he was doing.   He went to the defense of another official after the Gally game.  Said he had to take a student down (the police officer in him) and then got jumped.  He seemed in good spirits over the incident. 

[Matt Letourneau]

Gene's a police officer too?

That means you had 2 police officers officiating the CAC championship game.  No wonder why there were so many fouls called.

I'm sure Gene's a nice guy, but good Lord almighty he's hard to figure sometimes.  I'd love to chat with these guys sometime--calmly, about some of the calls they make just to understand.  If I ever saw Gene on the street I'd ask him why he let Tyson Lesense get away with murder down at St. Mary's the whole game---everything from walking away swearing to tossing the ball away, etc, but then ejects Aaron Kelly for nothing. 

Oh well.  Lets hope there are good crews up at York.  Have to be an improvement.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Gene's a police officer too?

That means you had 2 police officers officiating the CAC championship game. No wonder why there were so many fouls called.

I'm sure Gene's a nice guy, but good Lord almighty he's hard to figure sometimes. I'd love to chat with these guys sometime--calmly, about some of the calls they make just to understand. If I ever saw Gene on the street I'd ask him why he let Tyson Lesense get away with murder down at St. Mary's the whole game---everything from walking away swearing to tossing the ball away, etc, but then ejects Aaron Kelly for nothing.

Oh well. Lets hope there are good crews up at York. Have to be an improvement.

Matt... your a good guy... but you need to lossen up when it comes to foul calls. No ref wants to call a game tightly; be forced to whistle everything; become a bigger part of the game, then just three guys keeping a game under-control. I understand your passion about the sport and I certainly was as passionate as a student. However, I have come to learn that refs are not going to call absolutely every call and just because there is contact, doesn't mean you should expect a foul. Put it this way, in the NFL... they could call holding on EVERY play... but they only do it when it's necessary (overly bad). I am not saying all refs need to be understood and have an excuse. But, I saw Gene more this year than in years past (this year equaled about the last three years combined) and I thought Gene actually did a good job this year.

You can expect Gene to quietly ref a game and call things when he feels they have gone too far. I am surprised by the comment about Lesesne, because I think Gene was the ref in the game at Goucher... and Lesesne was warned early in the game to keep his mouth shut by another ref. Never heard a word from Lesesne the rest of the game... and he wasn't much of a leader to begin with.

We are about to get the NCAA tourney started and plenty of people are going to pationate about these games. Understand the refs are not going to get every call you think should be made (or shouldn't) and save your energy from yelling at them... to cheering on your team. Sometimes the yelling at the refs... simply outbalances the cheers..

[cugrad]

Watching Catholic play in several NCAA tournament games over the past ten years, I can say that the officiating has been very good. The one exception is Catholic's game at Widener. I have never seen anything like what I saw that night.  Win or lose, the Cards have always gotten a fair shake!

[Matt Letourneau]

D-Mac,
Did you come down to the CAC final? It was actually the Salisbury people complaining, not me or the Catholic fans.   The problem with that game, and I agreed with them, was that it was just too tightly officiated.  There was a whistle on virtually every play.

A few nights before, in the Catholic-Mary Washington game, a total of 22 fouls were called which resulted in a total of 17 free throws, combined.

In the CUA-Salisbury game, a total of 50 fouls were called, resulting in 69 free throws.  69, D-Mac!

I'm sorry dude, there is no way there needed to be 69 free throws in that game, a championship game.  It was physical, certainly, and having the game officiated that tightly probably benefited Catholic, but still...nobody wants to see that.   Sure, there was a bit more driving going on than in the Mary Wash game (though not as much as you might think).  Defend if you want, I suppose, but...

I didn't have a problem with Gene this particular year until he ejected Kelly.  But we had him a few times after that and he was pretty bad and couldn't stop blowing the whistle.  I know I'm not going to get every call.  You should sit with me during a game, you'd probably be surprised at how little I actually bother to yell anymore.  I pick my spots, but sometimes there are egregious cases where the ref needs to hear from the gym. 

Btw, grad is right. I wasn't at the Widener game last time (I vaguely remember the stories), but over the years I've always been impressed with the officiating in the NCAA Tournament.  Then again, when I used to go back home over Christmas break and go to a high school game, I was impressed with those officials in comparison too.

[Matt Letourneau]

Alright, can somebody refresh me? I was at the Brockport game in the blizzard the next day but not the Widener game.  What exactly happened?

first half as DeLuca hit 3-of-4 from the foul line following a series of four technical fouls, three being issued against Catholic and one against Widener.

[Pat Coleman]

What I remember is the home book writing down a foul on Maloney which had actually been called on someone else.

Then Pat Maloney's dad coming down out of the stands to argue with the official, and being escorted from the gym.

I am sure there was more someone else can tell. I could go back and listen to my tapes if I can find them.

[cugrad]

With 12 minutes left in the first half, Catholic had been whistled for 8 fouls and 3 techs to Widener's 1 foul and 1 tech. I believe Catholic's tech was called on Andy Rice. He went flying into the Widener bench and was beaten up a little by the guys on the bench. Rice responded and was assessed the tech. Concerning Maloney's foul, Will Morley took the ball from the  top of the key and drove the lane. He clearly charged into the Widener defender.  Maloney was in the right corner and was assessed the foul.  The announcer announced the foul against Morley. She was correct! The ref told the book that it was on Maloney. Maloney, Catholic's leading scorer, had 4 fouls in the first half. The NCAA rep was in front of the Catholic fans and heard a lot of unpleasant comments about the refs. He went downstairs where the refs dress during halftime. The second half was officiated much more evenly. Really, it was just one ref who went after Catholic. The other two really didn't do much of anything.