MORGANTOWN — Doug Sirmons, Brian O’Connell and James Breeding — the referees during Rhode Island’s 83-70 victory against West Virginia on Sunday — entered the Mohegan Sun Arena for the second half to a chorus of boos from fans of both teams.
Maybe nothing can generate unity among opposing fans quite like 56 fouls — 28 on each team — being called.
As fans continued to chant, “Let them play,” the refs continued to whistle one foul after the next.
The result? West Virginia point guard Beetle Bolden picked up three fouls in the first half, which would usually be eye-catching, except that Rhode Island forward Dana Tate was charged with four.
By the time the first half ended, only Lamont West and Brandon Knapper hadn’t been whistled for a foul for the Mountaineers (6-4).
And when it was all said and done, neither West Virginia coach Bob Huggins or Rhode Island coach David Cox were ready to throw any blame toward the referees.
“I want to give the refs some credit, because that was an awfully physical game both ways,” said Cox, who received one of the game’s four technical fouls. “It wasn’t an easy game to ref at all. I want to give those three veteran guys a lot of credit for calling the game the way they called it.”
West Virginia attempted 37 free throws, matching its season high.
“What I don’t think anybody understands is they’re directed to make those calls,” Huggins said. “That’s what they’re told to do [by the NCAA rules committee]. If they don’t do it, it’s bad for them.”
Since the 2013-14 season, the NCAA rules committee has instituted rule changes or changed points of emphasis directed at allowing offensive players more freedom of movement and cleaning up the level of physical play from post players.
“We have given every advantage you can possibly give to the guy who has the ball,” Huggins said. “It’s the rules committee. They want scoring to go up.”
Scoring has increased in the NCAA and at West Virginia. The Mountaineers scored 11 more points per game in 2014 — from 66 to 77 per game — than they did the season prior.
They have averaged more than 80 points per game over the last two seasons.
With the invention of “Press” Virginia’s full-court pressure, the Mountaineers have also been one of the most foul-prone teams in the country over the past four seasons, because of the contact between players that comes with running and trapping opposing teams.
As the defensive rules continued to change, Huggins often mentioned that it made less sense in being a full-court pressing team.
Through changing personnel and the rules changes, the Mountaineers aren’t the chaotic pressing team this season they once were.
But, that hasn’t exactly changed the fouls being called.
At the peak of the press (the 2015-16 season), West Virginia was averaging 23.5 fouls per game.
Without running the full-court traps, the Mountaineers are still being whistled for 20.6 fouls per game, which is 295th (out of 351) in the country.
“It’s not those guys [the refs],” Huggins said. “The fouls that were called weren’t our problem.”
Instead, Huggins said West Virginia’s inability to defend was to be blamed before and calls made by the referees.
“We don’t guard. We never guard, but we also didn’t make any shots,” Huggins said. “Our two starting guards [Bolden and Chase Harler] are 1 for 14. How are you going to win? I don’t think we were ready to play, which was my fault.”
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