Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Let's go to the mailbag...

by Barca Blog

We received this email in our web inbox after last night's game, so I thought I'd share it with you.

This person said that he/she was not a fan of either team, but obviously felt the need to vent to our site for some reason. Unfortunately, I can only post a portion of it.
"I just spent the last 3 hours watching the Tennessee/Vanderbilt game on ESPN. I am a college basketball fan and I was disgusted about the officiating in this game ... Vandy's players mugged the Tennessee players in the 1st half and were not called for it . Tennessee's players touched Vandy's players and were called for fouls. Vandy outplayed Tennessee and did not need help from the officials, but they sure got alot of it ... this game sickened me.
Sorry, but I don't buy into this reasoning. Vanderbilt just wanted it more. The Commodores set the tone from opening tip and kept pushing forward for the entire 40 minutes. They attacked the basket with a vengeance, while the Vols seemed to backpedal to the pressure. That's why there was a discrepancy in free throws (43-21).

Even Bruce Pearl admitted that Vanderbilt simply outworked his team.

“They are physical; they did a great job on the boards," Pearl said. "They particular did great on the offensive end. They were more physical than us, they were tougher than us.

“They are much better and much deeper ..."

Photo by John Russell

6 comments:

  1. Vandy committed 19 fouls and UT committed 28...for all you math majors out there, that's a difference of 9, which isn't that bad...if you wanna blame someone, blame your boys for not being aggressive on the offensive side of the ball...we can't help it if we're better free throw shooters...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Probably not the most ignorant email y'all have ever received, but that has to be up there.

    I'd provide a lengthy description of why the foul disparity existed the way it did, but I'd be wasting my own time, seeing as UT fans can't read.

    ReplyDelete
  3. There were at least 4 "touch" fouls I saw called against us last night and they all seemed to follow "conversations" Coach Pearl was initiating with the officials. People see what they want to see whether they "claim" to be neutral or not.

    ReplyDelete
  4. You did a terrible job of officiating in that game, Brandon.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I would be willing to bet that "basketball fan" was a fan of Tennessee. I thought the referees were not good but they were equally bad. I thought Tennessee got the benefit of several calls.

    ReplyDelete
  6. On a lighter note, that's a pretty good picture
    of Coach Pearl at his best (Above). Memorial Gym really brings about more than it's share of meltdowns from Tennessee coaches. I haven't seen him that animated since he gave Erin Andrews that big hug. Give the guy an aspirin.
    Go Vanderbilt!!!!

    ReplyDelete