Anybody else think we got some "home cooking"?

First of all, let me say I LOVE IT! But, if I were an Illini fan, I probably would be whining about the officiating. We must have shot 20 more FT's than they did, and the refs let Colton and Ralph manhandle Manute Tisdale. We seemed to be in the bonus quite early in both halves. It just seemed we got a lot of the close calls.

My point is, when is the last time that has happened? When is the last time you ever felt the refs may have given us a break, or been intimidated by our coach. Never with Monson. It just feels good to look over and see Tubby manning the sidelines. I expect we will see more and more games like this where we seem to have a Kohl Center-like homecourt advantage. Thank God for Tubby.

Thank you for posting this - I like it when people can see their teams very realistically. A few games ago, I was saying - why don't we ever get home-town refs? Why don't we get WI type refs. Being a Packer fan, I can tell when we get the calls, and we do (but then again, we're America's team, lol). And I can admit we got a lot of nice calls tonight. We were about 20 rows back this game, so I didn't have as good of a view as normal, but I think we did have a little advantage there.

agreed, there were a lot of times sampson went to the line when he might not have normally, escpecially on the road

cheeseheadgophfan said:

First of all, let me say I LOVE IT! But, if I were an Illini fan, I probably would be whining about the officiating. We must have shot 20 more FT's than they did, and the refs let Colton and Ralph manhandle Manute Tisdale. We seemed to be in the bonus quite early in both halves. It just seemed we got a lot of the close calls.

My point is, when is the last time that has happened? When is the last time you ever felt the refs may have given us a break, or been intimidated by our coach. Never with Monson. It just feels good to look over and see Tubby manning the sidelines. I expect we will see more and more games like this where we seem to have a Kohl Center-like homecourt advantage. Thank God for Tubby.

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You guys kicked our ass tonight. There might have been a few calls that went your way, but it didn't impact the game. I'm disappointed, but if we had to lose to one coach in the conference, let it be Tubby. Congratulations, the streak had to end sometime. I hope we both make the Sweet Sixteen.

statman14 said:

You guys kicked our ass tonight. There might have been a few calls that went your way, but it didn't impact the game. I'm disappointed, but if we had to lose to one coach in the conference, let it be Tubby. Congratulations, the streak had to end sometime. I hope we both make the Sweet Sixteen.

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Thanks, Statman - welcome to the board, and thank you for being a classy and gracious Illini fan.

P.S. I do agree, we got some nice calls - but I am in the same boat as you, I don't think this impacted the outcome of the game.

GopherLady said:

Thanks, Statman - welcome to the board, and thank you for being a classy and gracious Illini fan.

P.S. I do agree, we got some nice calls - but I am in the same boat as you, I don't think this impacted the outcome of the game.

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I love Coach Weber. But if there is one other coach in this conference I would let my kid play for, it would be Tubby Smith. I hope we beat you guys like a drum at Assembly Hall (and I think we have a good shot in that game as well), but good luck in every game but that one. BTW, Ralph Sampson III really impressed me tonight.

It was a wonderful game for Gopher fans, but I wish we wouldn't chant "over rated" to any opponent. First of all, it diminishes our victory, and secondly, it provides a little something extra for Illinois to remember when we play again in Champaign.

As a side note, when was the last time an opposing team didn't have any double-figure scorers against the Gophers?

You can maybe blame the refs for a loss of up to five points, but 23? Be serious.

Illinois shot jump shots and missed. Officials don't make shots and if you don't go to the basket you won't shoot free throws. There was no home cooking.

Agreed on the chanting crap. We were once better than that in MN. I absolutely hate that stuff. Win with class, lose with class. College kids, student athletes, do not deserve taunting.

We (sad to say) picked up on this junk from the likes of WI. I'm old enough to remember a time when they routinely pulled this kind of stunt ("Sieve, sieve, sieve"...."Sit down, you bum", stuff like that. Wisconsin did this years before our "fans" adopted them. Heck, if we're going to be boors, then let's at least come up with some original material!

MaxyJR1 said:

Illinois shot jump shots and missed. Officials don't make shots and if you don't go to the basket you won't shoot free throws. There was no home cooking.

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Agree. Illinois never really drove the lane to penetrate, hence few FT attempts. They spent most of the game chucking it from outside and the gophers had a hand in the face of almost every shot. The illini never got good looks at the basket the entire game. Once might argue biased ref-ing looking just at the disparity of FT numbers, but if you watched the game, you would know that it was not the refs, just the illini being limited to jump shots from the outside.

We (sad to say) picked up on this junk from the likes of WI. I'm old enough to remember a time when they routinely pulled this kind of stunt

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Absolutely not true. We were yelling "OVERRATED" way back in the Mussleman years. It's what students do. It adds to the atmosphere.

There is not a college game played in America where you don't hear this chant when a ranked opponent is beaten on the underdog's floor.

Of course before Tubby came there wasn't much opportunity to yell it at the Barn.

FWIW-I have consistently thought that Illinois, Michigan State, Wisconsin, Indiana and to a slightly lesser extent Purdue got the calls when they played the Gophers. In the past it didn't even matter if it were at the barn or on the road. I can vividly remember a game against MSU @ Williams Arena in 1999 and another against Illinois (I'm blanking on the year but Burleson was here, probably about 2000) where we got absolutely screwed by the refs and I felt like they cost us the game in the closing minutes. The bad calls seemed to happen the most frequently at the end of the season and it almost seemed as though the Big Ten was trying to help the top teams get better seeds.

Yesterday was the first time in years that I felt like we were getting the benefit of the officiating against one of those opponents. I actually smiled at one point and thought it is nice to be seen as a good team and get the benefit of the doubt. There were certainly instances where I disagreed with calls (Sampson's block on Meacham, one of Johnson's traveling calls) but as a whole I thought it was called tighter against Illinois.

That being said, the refs were not even close to determining the outcome of the game. The Gophers played very well and Illinois played very poorly. From having watched the two teams throughout the season, I don't think we are 23 points better than Illinois but I'm glad to have this win in our back pocket. The way each team has played recently I feared getting swept in the series so it is be going to Champaign/Urbana looking for the sweep.

I thought the game was fairly equal for last night's game. I do think we got a significant advantage from the refs during the Purdue game. We just didn't make any shots.

One thing that stood out watching the game on TV is that Hightower likes to put on a show. IMO the best refs are the ones that barely notice. Everytime Hightower makes a call the entire world knows what the call is with his exagerated gestures. Quit putting on a show and just call the game.

Also, I know Steve Whelmer broke his leg or something, but watch him next time he refs a game. He adjusts his pants hundreds if not thousands of time during the course of a game. Once you watch for it, it is really funny.

Also, I know Steve Whelmer broke his leg or something, but watch him next time he refs a game. He adjusts his pants hundreds if not thousands of time during the course of a game. Once you watch for it, it is really funny.

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I have mentioned this to my buddies several times and your right, it is hilarious. He seems like such a good guy so I don't like to mock him but if you notice it it you become obsessed with his adjustments.

As for Eddie, he is so dramatic. Everything he does is calculated to bring attention to himself. But then he does get to ref the "big" games. It seems like he is intent on not being intimidated by the home crowd so he tends to call them the other way. I'm sure everyone in the conference feels the same way about Eddie so at least he is consistent in that regard.