Anaheim Regional

First, let me say that every time I visit another arena, I leave more and more impressed with Arco Arena in Sacramento. I know the Maloofs want a newer arena, but Arco is far better than the Honda Center in Anaheim. Arco is the most accessible arena I have visited and the seats are closer to the action than at many arenas which are built for hockey, not basketball. Plus, if the Maloofs got their new arena with the glitzy luxury boxes, what companies are going to buy them?

On to the games:

I continue to read about UCLA and officials. Jay Bilas is adamant that Sloan was fouled on the final play of the game. The play was across the court from me, so I'm not going to judge whether it was a foul or not. However, there were at least six times that I could not believe calls the officials made. The crew that did the UCLA game on Saturday is a horrible crew. They were horrible in the game that they did on Thursday, too, when I had no rooting interest. The short, white heaired ref (I think it is Tim Higgins) just makes up rules and makes calls when he is tired to slow the pace of the game. He should be forced into retirement. He made a travel call that was a clear misinterpretation of the rule book, one of the charges called was not even close, and there were several other calls that were equally bad. And, the same thing happened in their game on Thursday.

For that matter, the Stanford game against Marquette was terribly officiated. It did not matter because Brook Lopez made the shot, but he was clearly fouled on the final shot of the game, as the defender slid underneath him to take away his legs on the shot. But, no call was made and nobody argues about the officiating on that play.

I read the LA Times yesterday to see the officials explanation of the Trent Johnson ejection. Now, minutes before Johnson was ejected, I turned to my girlfriend and said he will last two years without the Lopez twins before he is fired because he is a very average coach. We were stunned that Stanford could not get the ball to Brook Lopez in the first half when he was defended by a 6'4 guard. Then, Johnson gets ejected.

Now, I do not believe he should have been ejected. The official explanation, per the L.A. Times, was that he had been warned and that a timeout had not been issued. This is crap. It was the official timeout that occurs at 16:00, 12:00, 8:00 and 4:00. Both teams were on the floor for the timeout. Ben Howland did the same thing three times during the UCLA game (fwiw, I've never seen Howland argue as much, the officials were that bad, and my friend said that she could not believe how calm he remained as she would have been irate with the calls going against UCLA). One technical was plenty. I was watching the interaction the entire time and I thought they had called the first technical, but I never saw it. And, fwiw, it was a terrible call that led to the technicals. If you try to split a tight trap and you trip on the defenders, that is your fault, not a defensive foul.

I'm sick of officials who think they are important. Good officials go unnoticed. So far, the officials have drawn far too much attention, which means they are not doing a good job officiating in the tournament. All season, I almost never saw technical fouls; the only coach I remember getting a technical was Capel at Oklahoma, who seems to get T'd up during every televised game. Then, I see four technicals on Friday and Saturday, all within the first 10:00 of a game (Johnson's, Huggins and Dakich). Coaches have a responsibility to observe the rules and coaching decorum, but the officials cannot change the rules and their approach just because its the tourney and they need to understand the pressure the coaches feel to win and justify their mammoth salaries. The game is for the players, not the coaches or the officials.