SCREWWWWWWWWED!!!

[Rawker]

I will never live it down.  Yes, we went stagnant on offense in the last minutes, partly because we had our 2 main stars (and in the end, they were indeed our 2 main stars) came up hobbling, plus Beard doing the same, and you can argue all you want for the offensive ineptitude in the end.   Nonetheless, as I review the game....at least 8 of the 12-0 run by NC in the end was the direct result of the gifts they were given by the refs.  I mean, it was an ALL TIME screw job by the refs....and this is coming from someone who usually tries to look away from the refs and toward problems in execution.  Indeed, there were problems with execution, but the turnaround STARTED when Bailey had a CLEAN steal and we were a subsequent fast break away from making that game all ours.  We would have been up by 7 (or did they get it back to 3 before that and we were going to be up 5 again?).  That phantom foul resulted in 2 FTs.  TOTAL BS!!!  CLEAN STEAL to go along with his other steals and disruptions in the collection, and the refs just weren't going to let it happen.  It was going to be 2 for us, and the refs give 2 to NC.  Then it's the tipped ball play that actually never went out of bounds before Barford threw it off NC.  We should have had one more shot at a shot.  Nope....refs take it the other way.  Then the most unbelievable call/no-call I've ever seen in basketball, even in the pros where they don't even call walks.  The walk was so bad that Berry, who figured that surely his friends in the zebra shirts would call a foul on Bailey, was done with the play, so he walked around with the ball for a bit then threw it at the backboard, where after not a single attempt by refs to stop the madness, a NC player grabs it and banks it in for another 2 of the at least 8 points NC got from the goons in black and white, whose execution of reffing was so bad, one has to consider if Vegas had anything to do with it.  SCREWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWED!! 
   

[synthartist69]

This is what I have been saying all all along. Refs have way too much power, just like judges.

[Jborohog09]

I had a bad feeling right when that steal got called a foul.  Momentum completely changed.

[hawgdavis]

I didn't have to replay it to see that but yes the refs fixed it for them. Had we extended our lead to 7 or 10 pts they couldn't have saved them and they knew it so they slammed the door on us at 5 pts up and we couldn't overcome it like SC was able to once they got up 7

[Arazorbackguy1]

I thought the steal was the proper call. He reached over the offensive player and made contact.  That'll get the same call every time.

[Hawg Red]

What people that say that we just didn't do what we needed to offensively at the end don't mention is that several times the referees made really bad calls that stopped us from building onto our lead that could/should have allowed us to pull that win off. Our guys were on E out there. We outplayed that team in the second half but we just did not get the same calls from the officials that UNC did. You can't deny it and you can't deny the major impact it had on the game.

Bottom line is, we did not play well enough to beat UNC and the officials. But those kids shouldn't have had to do that in the damn NCAA tournament. It should have been enough that they played well enough to beat UNC straight up. Go Hogs.

[hawgdavis]

I thought the steal was the proper call. He reached over the offensive player and made contact.  That'll get the same call every time.

Unless you are UNC or Duke

[moses_007]

I questioned Mike putting Bailey into the game the last 4-5 minutes when he's clearly not a scorer.  Why not put Thompson in... we needed two bigs in the game down the stretch.  What was your thinking, Mike?

[hawgdavis]

What people that say that we just didn't do what we needed to offensively at the end don't mention is that several times the referees made really bad calls that stopped us from building onto our lead that could/should have allowed us to pull that win off. Our guys were on E out there. We outplayed that team in the second half but we just did not get the same calls from the officials that UNC did. You can't deny it and you can't deny the major impact it had on the game.

Bottom line is, we did not play well enough to beat UNC and the officials. But those kids shouldn't have had to do that in the damn NCAA tournament. It should have been enough that they played well enough to beat UNC straight up. Go Hogs.

This all day long and it makes me sick

[Hawg Red]

Unless you are UNC or Duke

Exactly. Schools like that play by a different set of rules than schools like Arkansas and Seton Hall. See, there was no issue for them to call that game fairly straight up because who gives a sh..t about Arkansas or Seton Hall, right? But UNC, no, gotta help UNC if you have any daylight to against an 8 seed. A school shouldn't have to build a 15 point lead against a blue blood just to make sure the refs don't cockblock them.

[hawgdavis]

I questioned Mike putting Bailey into the game the last 4-5 minutes when he's clearly not a scorer.  Why not put Thompson in... we needed two bigs in the game down the stretch.  What was your thinking, Mike?

Bailey was the spark that got us on the run to get us up and he looked like he was playing pretty well to me. He wreaked havoc on NC and they looked lost on what to do with him so the refs had to neutralize him and us.

[Rawker]

What people that say that we just didn't do what we needed to offensively at the end don't mention is that several times the referees made really bad calls that stopped us from building onto our lead that could/should have allowed us to pull that win off. Our guys were on E out there. We outplayed that team in the second half but we just did not get the same calls from the officials that UNC did. You can't deny it and you can't deny the major impact it had on the game.

Bottom line is, we did not play well enough to beat UNC and the officials. But those kids shouldn't have had to do that in the damn NCAA tournament. It should have been enough that they played well enough to beat UNC straight up. Go Hogs.

Yes!  Yes!  That's indeed the point.  If you're a ref and the game is one possession all through the end, you call the clear calls and let the kids' play decide the rest.  Bailey's steal was not a clear foul at all.  The walk was the clearest call in basketball.  He walked like a 2nd grader at the boys club.  No doubt the Hogs were completely on E, and that happens when you have to play 3 monster PFs and 2 incredible Gs the whole game, but they shouldn't have had to play TWO teams in the end, and they did....and would have won if they only had to play the team in white and blue.

[onebadrubi]

We got hosed, yes.  But, I am not sure why I ah w to say it so many times, this is not a Vegas example.  Vegas would have loved a UNC upset because of all the parlays with them in there with the ML.  The hose job did not come anywhere close to changing the spread, Vegas also had many lopsided bets going to Carolina, meaning they needed Arkansas to cover

[Rawker]

I questioned Mike putting Bailey into the game the last 4-5 minutes when he's clearly not a scorer.  Why not put Thompson in... we needed two bigs in the game down the stretch.  What was your thinking, Mike?

You've lost your frickin' mind.  Bailey was EVERYTHING and EVERYWHERE.  He was the Hawgball I've been looking for since Anderson coached a Hawgball team at UAB.  He was the energy that would have won the game, and again, he got the steal in the final minutes that might have sealed it.  But no....foul called on a play where Bailey had the least contact of all his steals and disruptions.

[5 little pigs]

Inexcusable to look at a replay and still make the wrong call.  Inexcusable!!!!!  If you aren't going to properly use technology, don't use it at all,  and the no call I still cannot believe!!?? 

[rzrbackramsfan]

I won't ever forget this game and how screwed we were and what could've been if we weren't screwed.  And every time I think back on how we ended, I'll have to manually remind myself that we lost in the round of 32 because i feel like we won the game.

[rude1]

For those who are trying to blame it on our lack of offensive execution at the end of the game. In the last three minutes where we went scoreless, NC made 3 field goals, one after an obvious charge, one on a dunk when the game was basically over, they scored ONE legit field goal themselves in the last 3 minutes of the game, they got 6 points off free throws down the stretch, that is how they got the lead, it wasn't great offense on their part it was great free throw shooting because of calls. Compare our 8 free throw attempts to their 25, nothing else needs to be said..............

[HawgnCorona]

UNC  would have been toast if the officials had have call fouls evenly...We held them to 38% FG and 29% 3pt FG but not getting to the line was telling also...Just 8 shots from the FT is telling.

The shenanigans at the end of the game was just to much for them to overcome...SCREWED indeed.

[Youngsta71701]

I thought the steal was the proper call. He reached over the offensive player and made contact.  That'll get the same call every time.

He reached over? I could have sworn he reached around .