CityDuke wrote:

levon1975 wrote:

This was a pivotal game, and one that you need to win at home. The team made a furious comeback, but missed the short game-winner. That happens, so someone has to win and lose! I give the guys credit for clamping down on Princeton and causing 4-5 shot-clock violations throughout the game. Defensive intensity was great in the last 5-minutes. Shooting however cost DU the game.
It occurred to me how much the officiating changed in this game in the mid-second half until the end. In the first half it was just a plethora of little ticky-tacky touch fouls (mostly on Duquesne) that took F. Drame and Jimmy Clark off the court. They seemed to try and compensate early second-half by hitting Princeton with some minor touch fouls, but in the last five minutes of the game, it was like a hockey game in which the NHL refs famously “swallow their whistles”. It got pretty rough, which helped the Dukes in their comeback. It was just alarming the differences in how the game was called from half-to-half.
It was a strange mix of officials. The short guy doesn’t make a lot of calls, but when he does, he usually makes the worst decisions. He often made crazy calls from a distance, despite the fact that the plays occurred directly in front of another ref. As a former official, you don’t like getting shown-up on calls by a guy on the other side of the court! I’ll bet nobody wants to work with this guy, and I hate to see him work a Dukes game. I would not be surprised if he was assigned to ensure the “correct”outcome of games.

Excellent analysis

At one point in the first half, Princeton had just one foul to our 11 fouls? And it's on our home court? But, in the second half, they turned on Princeton, but just enough to even the stats, then our last shot, they could have called a foul on their center since in that circle, you can't set to block a shooter to the basket?  I'd like to see just once, a ref give us a home court call.

I am with Mike I, if we get some scoring inside we win this game.  That said, great effort and had a chance to win at the end.  I also think if Clark takes it to the hoop we win as he scores or gets filed, but nonetheless we did end up with a makeable shot.  Let's get back on track on Friday!!