Busting Brackets
Fansided

Penn State’s Chambers Blasts Refs, Says What Fans Feel

By Hashim R. Hathaway

facebooktwitterreddit

When a game is coming down to the wire, and your team is behind, it’s easy to look at an official’s bad call as a source of blame, but in the case of Penn State head coach Pat Chambers, who leveled a volley of criticism against Big Ten officials in the wake of Saturday’s 76-73 loss to N0. 19 Maryland, he may have a point which deserves a closer look.

More from Big Ten

The bad call in question came with 1:50 left in the second half, as official Kelly Pfeifer charged Penn State’s Jordan Dickerson with an offensive foul against Maryland’s Evan Smotrycz, effectively knocking him out of the game at a critical time.

A closer look at the fateful call shows that it was Smotrycz that hooked Dickerson with his right arm, dragging both to the ground. The foul should’ve been on the Terrapins; and with Maryland holding a 70-68 lead, if the call went the other way, it could’ve led to a tied game with less than two minutes left in regulation.

Naturally, Chambers would take issue with the foul, referring to it in his post-game conference as, “the worst call that I’ve ever seen in my entire life.” While it’s natural to be upset at a blown call, what followed was nothing short of an indictment against Pfeifer.

By also calling out what he considered to be preferential treatment for Maryland’s Melo Trimble, who went to the line for 12 shots, all of which he made, he accused the officiating crew of something that pretty much every fan on the losing side of a game claims:

Homecooking.

The idea that a home team gets preferential treatment from an officiating staff is certainly nothing new, and in many cases, it’s almost considered commonplace that the home team will get a phantom call here and there, with the unspoken hope that the refs don’t end up deciding the game.

While there was no immediate reprisal from the Big Ten for Chambers’ remarks, ESPN analysts and former head coach Dan Dakich stuck up for Chambers in a series of tweets Sunday morning by raising an issue that could certainly be considered a bombshell in its own right.

It would be easy to dismiss Dakich’s claims as biased from a coach’s perspective, but as he had the benefit of seeing the process not only from his time as a head coach at a MAC school, but also as a long-time assistant to Bob Knight at Indiana.

In his post-game comments, Chambers accused Pfeifer of being “too young” and that “he doesn’t have a feel for the game”. Looking at Pfeifer’s officiating record, his fouls per game average of 37.0 is pretty consistent in each of his five seasons.

While he may be young with only 165 games under his belt, his numbers aren’t so far removed from a more seasoned (and controversial) official like “TV” Ted Valentine, who over the course of 1566 games, averages 34.4 fouls per game.

According to Dan Dakich, the idea of homecooking isn’t so much about the venue, but rather the stature of the coaches. While Mark Turgeon isn’t a household name, his Terrapins are an established program and are 20-5 in their first Big Ten season, so could Dakich be onto something?

One thing that is remarkable about both Pfeifer and Valentine is that they are actually less likely to call fouls in conference games they officiate than out of conference games, with Pfeifer calling three less fouls in conference games.

But while the stats argue towards impartiality on the surface, what no metric currently measures is when a ref is more likely to call a foul. In that, Dakich’s words carry much more weight.

The truth is, since Penn State joined the Big Ten in 1991, they’ve never been a threat to lead or even win the conference in men’s basketball. They’ve been a perennial bottom-feeder of sorts, and as such, aren’t ever likely to enjoy special treatment from an officiating crew. So in Penn State’s case, who’s looking out for the underdog?

In the end, Chambers’ comments will be passed off as a coach blowing off some steam after a tough loss. College basketball may be more about revenue generation than justice, but how long before homecooking catches up on the NCAA and begins to harm the bottom line?

Next: Coach's Clipboard: Illinois Fighting Illini Crack The Zone

Home/Big Ten