WCC refs out for Broncos?
By Cecile Nguyen
If referees do their job correctly, then no one will notice them.
We pay attention to refs only when they completely blow a call or if the game is one-sided.
It seems this has been the case for the men's basketball team in their two conference losses.
Maybe the Broncos need more discipline. But, as someone pointed out to me, maybe it's because West Coast Conference referees have it out for Santa Clara.
Case in point: In the Broncos' 55-50 loss to San Diego on Sunday, the Toreros were called for one foul compared to Santa Clara's five in the final 30 seconds of the game.
The game-changing moment was probably the technical foul called against guard Perry Petty.
"Crazy typical league, I guess," San Diego head coach Bill Grier said. "I saw the foul called but didn't know what happened."
Down 48-47, San Diego's Trumaine Johnson intentionally fouled Petty to get the guard on the line.
Petty retaliated against the hard foul and was whistled for a technical for throwing an elbow. The two players began jawing at each other and talking smack after the call before they were seperated.
In that situation, couldn't Johnson also be whistled for a technical? Or perhaps a flagrant foul for fouling Petty too hard?
In the end, Johnson sunk his two free throws and Petty made his pair to keep the Broncos' lead at 50-49, but at that point the Toreros were in possession of the ball.
In the Saint Mary's game last Friday, there was a glaring discrepancy between free throws taken by the Gaels, who took 26 shots from the charity stripe, and the Broncos, who only had 16 attempts.
Center John Bryant had just two shots from the free throw line in the Saint Mary's game. He had two versus San Diego and only four against New Hampshire.
Being a big man like Bryant, I imagine the only way opponents would stop him from reaching the net is to foul him.
"I've been disappointed in the amount of free throws John's been getting," head coach Kerry Keating said following the San Diego loss. "With two of the best post players (Bryant and Gyno Pomare), something's got to give. We needed to get to the free throw line more."
Though the end result of the championship game of the Cable Car Classic against UTEP worked out in Santa Clara's favor, it still goes to show how poor the officiating has been in the WCC.
How can anyone forget the foul call against Brody Angley with less than a second left in the second overtime that led to Santa Clara's loss to Gonzaga last year? That call still leaves a foul taste in my mouth.