Refs

CRHAWK

Senior
Sep 7, 2025
230
624
93
The officials have been consistently bad this whole season. Giving up 9 straight baskets doesn't help either
 

83Hawk

All-Conference
Jan 1, 2023
1,450
3,189
113
I know, don’t blame the refs, but tonight was egregious. Rapidly becoming sick of sports where the officials play such an outsized role in the outcome.
Ben is in a no-win situation. If he doesn’t get on the refs they will allow other teams to run roughshod over them. If he DOES start getting on them, they will whistle Iowa for even more fouls as “punishment”.

I really don’t understand why some teams are allowed to play under a different set of rules than others.
 

HawkBall23

All-American
Oct 6, 2001
4,560
8,629
113
I am sick of teams driving to the basket getting awarded a foul just for Iowa breathing on them. When Iowa goes to the basket there is hard contact and no whistle.
^ This.

See the linked tweet in the game thread of Combs getting completely trucked and run over on his drive to the hoop by Clough, on the same sequence that Cooper was wrongly called for the foul on the block out with the ball going out.
 

Sett1997

All-Conference
Oct 23, 2025
800
2,579
93
Ben is in a no-win situation. If he doesn’t get on the refs they will allow other teams to run roughshod over them. If he DOES start getting on them, they will whistle Iowa for even more fouls as “punishment”.

I really don’t understand why some teams are allowed to play under a different set of rules than others.
If it doesn't make sense, it's money. Everything on this planet is ruled by greed and money.

Make It Rain Money GIF
 

Rambler Hawk

All-Conference
Oct 10, 2001
1,942
2,575
113
Ben is in a no-win situation. If he doesn’t get on the refs they will allow other teams to run roughshod over them. If he DOES start getting on them, they will whistle Iowa for even more fouls as “punishment”.

I really don’t understand why some teams are allowed to play under a different set of rules than others.
Good ‘ol boys club and Izzo is at the head of the table….😵💫
 

Herky T Hawk

Senior
Feb 5, 2003
213
500
63
I’ve said this before, but I’ve really backed off on watching games the past few years because of the refs. And not just in basketball, but also football. I didn’t even watch the game at all tonight because I’m just becoming apathetic to it.

With online gambling as rampant as it is, and normalized with constant advertising, you can’t convince me that some refs aren’t on the take for influencing games. Human nature of greed and self-benefit will win out at least once in a while when you get enough humans together with enough opportunities.
 

TheGuy9

Freshman
Mar 25, 2016
52
79
18
There was a play late in the second half where the ball went out of bounds under the basket. The ref on the baseline literally had no idea who the ball was off of. He started to call it for Purdue, but just as he began to point toward their basket, the ref on the opposite side who had a much better view of the play whistled the ball and pointed in Iowa's direction. The first ref immediately did the same. There was no discussion, which tells me he was just going to make the call for Purdue without any knowledge of who touched the ball last. The replay showed it wasn't even close, and the ball did go off the Purdue player.
 

bansheexyz

Junior
Sep 24, 2017
115
269
63
Been watching Iowa bball 25 years. These B10 refs are some of the worst ever. Dunno if they're just dumb or on the take. I actually thought the first 30 minutes of the game was pretty fairly called other than the two phantom screen fouls on us. Then the last 10 minutes all hell broke loose again, up is down, white is black, dogs are cats.
 

the24fan

All-Conference
Jul 30, 2007
749
1,439
93
I know, don’t blame the refs, but tonight was egregious. Rapidly becoming sick of sports where the officials play such an outsized role in the outcome

refs tonight:
Delete Just As I Thought GIF by Robert E Blackmon
i'm surprised Paul Szelc wasn't involved!(Paul Szelc is an ignorant scoundrel, I disapprove of his very existence)
 
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Slim45

All-Conference
Nov 30, 2019
610
1,931
93
Been watching Iowa bball 25 years. These B10 refs are some of the worst ever. Dunno if they're just dumb or on the take. I actually thought the first 30 minutes of the game was pretty fairly called other than the two phantom screen fouls on us. Then the last 10 minutes all hell broke loose again, up is down, white is black, dogs are cats.
same. I think it was around 12minutes 2nd qtr when smith dove and took stirtz’s legs out on the loose ball and they called no foul and out on stirtz…from that call on it was absolute trash. Which tells me, the refs weren’t going to allow us to win. You can’t go from making the right calls for 3/4 of the game to suddenly sucking that bad.
 

DukeSlater

All-Conference
Jul 2, 2023
1,745
3,975
113
I have a friend that officiates High school BB.
He says it's getting more difficult to call due to all the contact allowed
in a sport that was designed for no contact years ago.
It's gotten out of hand. His words not mine.
Some of us have been saying this for years. Call the contact, and they'll stop doing it. It really is that simple.
 

DukeSlater

All-Conference
Jul 2, 2023
1,745
3,975
113
I know, don’t blame the refs, but tonight was egregious. Rapidly becoming sick of sports where the officials play such an outsized role in the outcome.
This is why I recently wrote that the personal foul limit in basketball should be eliminated. We don't have anything like it in any other sport. Basketball is the only game where the officials can, and often do, decide who plays and how much they play. It's ludicrous. Or if it's such a great idea, adopt it for football. A lineman, for example, has a couple of holding calls and two motion calls and, boom, disqualified for too many "personal fouls." It's ridiculous on its face, yet this is what happens in basketball.

The original idea was that basketball would be a game where contact would be avoided, so the personal foul limit was established to punish those who repeatedly broke that fundamental precept. But basketball hasn't been played that way for at least 30 years. Now it's all about the weight room and "physicality" and "backing guys down," terms that are incompatible with the fundamental design of the game.

If you want weight room heroes and physicality and mayhem, you have football, rugby, MMA and the like. Basketball is supposed to be about grace and finesse and speed and quickness. Brute strength has no place in basketball. NONE.

And because refs are SO inconsistent and/or SO incompetent, allowing them to control players' time on the court is an offense to any fair-minded person. Eliminate the egregious contact, and eliminate "fouling out." Both would make basketball worth playing and watching again.
 
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DukeSlater

All-Conference
Jul 2, 2023
1,745
3,975
113
Basketball is supposed to look more like volleyball and less like football...
You nailed it. Excellent analogy. Pete Maravich, John Johnson, Fred Brown, Don Nelson and on and on and on weren't big bruisers. They were basketball players with the finesse of ballet dancers. There wasn't a bulging muscle on any of them or the vast majority of their peers, and no basketball program at any level had a weight room.
 

uihawk82

All-Conference
Nov 17, 2021
2,240
3,325
113
I know, don’t blame the refs, but tonight was egregious. Rapidly becoming sick of sports where the officials play such an outsized role in the outcome.
I only watched the 2nd half and just in those 20 minutes when PU got down they started bumping, grabbing, and using hands to stop our players. It was really bad because there were some very ticky tack fouls called on Iowa.

And of course the worst one was late when Bennett S lost the handle and got the ball back by the sideline and the PU guy slid right into him making him go out of bounds. Coach McC had been very livid most of the 2nd half. And that late play iirc Iowa was still within reach cut the lead to 2 or 3, instead it went the other way, they scored and that was it
 

Garzatough85

Junior
Dec 28, 2022
166
232
43
If it doesn't make sense, it's money. Everything on this planet is ruled by greed and money.

Make It Rain Money GIF
Ok a little simplistic!
premier coaches in premier programs definitely get the edge in college hoops
Just like LeBron and others get the edge in NBA.
I’ll take the college version over NBA any day!
 
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StarHawk

Redshirt
May 27, 2019
9
22
3
The recipe for getting a foul called by Big10 refs (and probably most conferences) is to drive to basket, draw a bit of contact by lowering shoulder or forearm (as #3 Purdue demonstrated time and again) shoot the ball and fall back on the floor like you've been hit by a truck. Sometimes the homer refs don't require the fall back on floor as they start blowing whistle as soon as defender is within a foot of the guy driving the ball.

go back years ago and you'll see none of this garbage of guys (and women too) flopping on the floor on every drive to the basket. Also back then, it was a game of contact except if you hammer someone while they shoot.....touching a fingertip did not qualify. Posts were allowed to back into defenders and the defender was allowed to bump them back...without fouls called.

There were 2 fouls called on Iowa guys last night where they clearly stripped the ball as a guy was pulling up to shoot...perfect ball strip..all ball, and refs called fouls (see Stirtz second foul). This is mind numbing. And yet they have forever now allowed guys to go over the backs and swat at balls usually hitting the rebounder who had position...and then half the time reward the guy that came over the back with the ball possession if it went out of bound....again mind numbing.

These refs think they are part of the entertainment and have lost sight of basketball reality...they need to go back and view old footages of how refs used to official games.
 
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HawkBall23

All-American
Oct 6, 2001
4,560
8,629
113
What’s interesting is I THINK Iowa is better built for tournament ball than big ten.

They will be far more impartial & call a more fair game.

Just get the 10 seed & see how it shakes out.

100% agree. Just get in the tournament and lets roll. I'll take Ben Mccollum in a 48 hour window
I used to think this with FM too - just do enough to get in the tournament and the refs won't allow all that rough & tumble brutality that is seen in the B1G - but that changed in the last few years.

Refs allow just as much, if not more, crazy amounts of contact and then turn around & call the "where the hell was the foul!?" stuff in the Big Dance, too.


I too do think Coach McCollum's style will work just fine in the NCAAT, but only because they play with such tenacity and toughness on the defensive end.
 

fivecardstud14

All-Conference
Dec 1, 2008
1,465
2,028
113
Ok a little simplistic!
premier coaches in premier programs definitely get the edge in college hoops
Just like LeBron and others get the edge in NBA.
I’ll take the college version over NBA any day!
NBA refs are miles better than college refs. NBA refs will suck because they’re gambling. College refs suck because of incompetence. Saying a college ref is in on the action gives them too much credit. They are simply that terrible, which is why they’re reffing in college instead of the Association.
 

bansheexyz

Junior
Sep 24, 2017
115
269
63
The recipe for getting a foul called by Big10 refs (and probably most conferences) is to drive to basket, draw a bit of contact by lowering shoulder or forearm (as #3 Purdue demonstrated time and again) shoot the ball and fall back on the floor like you've been hit by a truck. Sometimes the homer refs don't require the fall back on floor as they start blowing whistle as soon as defender is within a foot of the guy driving the ball.

The MSU and Purdue PGs are both expert foul baiters. They do a quick shoulder dig and flail back out to make it look like they got "bumped". Refs fall for it every time.