🏀 Virginia at Notre Dame, Tuesday, 27 January 2026, 1900, ESPN/2/U

[jazznutUVA]

@newjerseyhoo

There’s so much complaining about officiating here

It’s really fan bias & perspective at the end. I have perused some ND fan sites and they are convinced the referees were against them as well. Can you complain about individual calls? Sure… we are all fans of our team, but if you watch a game objectively, the calls even themselves out. Also… you have to play to the way the referees are calling the game. It is different every time. My favorite things that people yell at me as a soccer referee:

1. It’s not all about you, referee. (I’m not really sure what this means… but normally a yell because a fan thinks I made the wrong decision)
2. Call the fouls both ways. (If you are consistently on defense and/or overly aggressive you will get more fouls called on you… it’s science. LOL!)
3. Don’t listen to the fans on foul calls. (This one just makes me chuckle because I can barely hear the fans and when I do they are saying dumb things.)

[newjerseyhoo]

@jazznutUVA

My favorite things that people yell at me as a soccer referee:

I confess to being a terrible sports parent. My kids are college pitchers, and from my perspective, everything they throw should be a strike. I’m the guy in the stands shouting “Come on, blue, that was right over the middle” and my son is the sane one on the mound looking at me, shaking his head, and saying, “Dad, that was outside.”

[jazznutUVA]

@newjerseyhoo

my son is the sane one on the mound looking at me, shaking his head, and saying, “Dad, that was outside.”

I’ve written this on here before… but I’ve had multiple kids come up to me after games to apologize for the behavior of their coach or parent. In most cases, their behavior was just run-of-the-mill competitiveness and not something I believe is over the top, but I still appreciate it when it happens.

[Cuts_from_The_Corner]

link not working for me.

[jazznutUVA]

@Cuts_from_The_Corner

link not working

Here is the post… cut and paste:

When I watch a game I often get too immersed in the possession-by-possession action that I lose the ‘big picture.’ It’s a bit like reading a book, for me, when I lose the forest for the trees. I had some down time this morning so I re-watched the second half (most of it) and the two OT’s. I made a few notes and observations. If this is helpful, cool. If not, throw it on the dust bin of irrelevant posts.

First, ND made an inordinate number and percentage of threes in the first half. NDRoman21 and I were in agreement in RR that it was unsustainable. Basketball is a game of runs. We had a huge run most of the first half. I figured if UVa cut it to single digits by halftime, it would be game on in second half. The did. And it was.

UVa used a full court press and a very physical man-to-man to help get itself back in the game. The physicality of UVa’s defense made me question a few calls against the Irish in the late stages of the game.

End of Regulation

1:15 left. ND up 70-66. Shrews iso ends with bad pass & turnover.
0:54 UVa 3. 70-69. We couldn’t inbound vs. UVa press. Timeout Irish.
Turnover in-bounding ball.
0:47.5 UVa Layup. 70-71.
0:30 Certa from wing (even with 28 ft mark on sideline). That had to be mid 30’s ft trey. I used Pythagorean T,heorem & got 37.5 feet. Someone else, preferably an engineer, give it a go. The baseline is 53 feet. So 26.5 ft from rim to sideline. He’s a few feet in, so 24 or 25 feet horizontal, and at about 28ish feet vertical. Whatever. Deep three. 73-71.
0:18 UVa 2 FT’s 73 all.
We walk ball up and go timeout at 8.6 seconds. I’d prefer to get ball up with some urgency to get more that 8 seconds for last shot.
0:8.6 Koehler (sp?) Can’t get inbound to Haralson and throws to backcourt (top of key opposite end) to Certa. Not idea - to put it mildly. Certa misses fade away three.
0:0.7 Shrews gets a good shot off from three to win it with a baseline inbound. On line but short. 73 all. Overtime.

OT 1
Up 77-73 4:07
2:55 77-76 Certa drills a three. 80-76.
1:45 Sundra fouls out. Replaced by Imes, I believe.
1:30ish 80 all on 2 UVa FT’s
1:20 Shrews three. 83-80
0:46.3 UVa correctly gets 2 pts when ball is released before 30 second shot expires (I assume it’s the ball must be out of shooter’s hand, not hit rim, just like end half, end game). 83-82.
Koehler struggles with inbound. Gets it to Imes along baseline. VERY quick whistle for jump ball. Possession UVa. I strenuously object to that call. Pure bullshit. They had simultaneous possession for about a second, at most.
0:43.6 UVa ball.
0:26.7 UVa travel. Still 83-82.Certa makes two FT’s. 85-82. I didn’t write down the time. I think it was about 17 or 18 seconds left.
0:03.5 UVa hits a heavily guarded three. 85 all.

OT 2

Koehler fouls out 4:48. Sir subbed in. Where was Frost during all of this?
Insert comment: Towt’s fourth foul, moving screen, was BS. Towt’s fifth foul with about 2 minutes left in regulation was BS given how physical UVa was being allowed to play on opposite end.

1:28 Certa sweet reverse layup (right hand on left side, IIRC). 93-92.
1:11 Imes gets switched on to UVa’s 5. Foul. Make both. 93-94.
1:00 Certa with a heat check 3 from logo. 19 sec on shot clock. If anyone earned the right to shoot that, it was Certa. It’s a bit far and a bit early for my taste. Still 93-94.
0:55.5 Shaky, imo, foul call on Imes. UVa makes both. 93-96.
0:45.6 Haralson makes 2 FT. 95-96.
0:15.7 UVa makes a 2. 95-98.
0:11.8 ND timeout. Micah with a really nice slide inbound play to get Certa a good look at 3 when you had to have a 3 late game. If you’re not crazy about that play, we’ll just have to agree to disagree. It was creative, well-designed & well-executed. Shot didn’t drop.

UVa makes some FT’s and they win the game.

Key plays, to me: Two crappy calls that fouled Towt out. Inability to inbound ball successfully at end of regulation (0:54). Walking ball up with 18 seconds left & timeout at 8.6 seconds - either get into something on the fly OR call a timeout to set something up EARLIER. The craptastic sideline inbound that followed. End of first OT where Koehler struggles, again, to inbound the ball & forces it into Imes who is tied up, briefly, and a crappy call gives UVa possession.

That’s all I got. Have at it.

[AdventiveQuasar]

@jazznutUVA

I’ve written this on here before… but I’ve had multiple kids come up to me after games to apologize for the behavior of their coach or parent. In most cases, their behavior was just run-of-the-mill competitiveness and not something I believe is over the top, but I still appreciate it when it happens.

Relatedly: Survey: Managing parents among top reasons youth coaches quit - ESPN

Most of America’s youth-sport coaches are feeling burned out and fed up with verbal harassment and abuse, mainly from parents of athletes, according to a national survey released Thursday by the U.S. Center for SafeSport.

The challenge of managing parents ranks among the top reasons coaches have considered leaving or decided to quit, with one coach saying of parents: “They created tension. They instilled distrust. They were worse than children.”

[Hoohoohoo]

Yeah it’s bad out there. I thinks it’s partially:

1. Way too much specialization and competition early. Talked to a baseball parent that told me if you’re serious about baseball, you have your kid on a travel team at U-8 and spend winters with indoor training,

2. We spend more time with our kids than past generations but parents also think their kid’s success is directly related to their own increased investment. My parents would drop me off for most practices and then pick me up. Usually one at a game though but sometimes I get sent with another teammates family. My dad said he’d mostly ride his bike on his own when he was growing up.

3. Maybe this is more #1 but monetization of youth sports - “I’m paying for this” or “This is my kid’s ticket to college/pros” mindset. I’m sure private equity investing in rec leagues will make this all better!

[TheGrinch]

My kids all played travel soccer. Sideline time was challenging for most of it because I actually know the rules and most of the complaints (and the loudest complaints) were generally from parents who didn’t know the rules - of the “ball touched the line, our throw in” or “if the ball even touches a hand it’s a handball” or the always popular “my kid fell down so it was a foul.” I had one parent give me a hard time because I usually didn’t agree with the sideline consensus, so I would usually watch from waaay down the sideline. Like “I don’t know those people” distance down the sideline.
Of course, I did not always agree with the officials, but I mostly kept it to myself. I tried to hold myself to the standard of what one ref told Fineman about Bobby Cremmins - “if Bobby was upset with you, you knew you’d actually missed the call.” But even when they missed them, I was respectful about it.

[EmbracePaceUVA]

4. People have just become more comfortable being a-holes to others in public, generally. I attribute this to the internet/social media giving everyone’s opinion a voice (whether they deserve one or not).

[jazznutUVA]

@EmbracePaceUVA

the internet/social media giving everyone’s opinion a voice

If you believe one day cats will take over the world…

Before social media… you were a weirdo that everyone stayed away from
After social media… you are the President of the Cat Apocalypse Club and go to annual Conventions

[DavetheWave]

Best coaching move of the game I haven’t seen said here…
End of first OT TDR traveled and now the Hoos were down by 1 under the last shot clock… TDR had 4 fouls so Odom took him out and put in Malik…. A ruthless war general move!!!
Sure we could go for the steal but likely had to foul - So Odom sends his poorer soldier to the frontlines to absorb the enemy bullets and save his better players…
Malik fouled out 7 seconds later and the Hoos proceeded to finish the game 18-12 after that…
If he had cared about Malik staying in he would have put in Eli for defense…
Or maybe it was a happy accident and he had no idea Malik had 4 fouls too???
Could be chess could be checkers.

[zh00s]

Bingo. Parents right now need to do less and support other parents when they choose to do less.

We had like 5 halloween dress up things in the two weeks leading up to Halloween because a handful of intrepid do-it-alls planned stuff. Stop the nonsense.

[DavetheWave]

@zh00s

We had like 5 halloween dress up things in the two weeks leading up to Halloween because a handful of intrepid do-it-alls planned stuff. Stop the nonsense.

Or you had those 5 things because you said yes?

[salty]

As far as perceived fouls go, Expectation Bias is really hard to overcome. As fans, we see the patterns we expect to see and overlook the patterns that we wish not to see. It is human nature.

[HiltonHeadHoo]

Reputations do carry over game to game. But, at the same time TDR pretty much bodies a dude every possession on offense and defense. He has a passing awareness what constitutes a foul in our league. Love his game though. The rest of our guys hack too. We have earned our foul rep this year.

[Hoos4Life]

Anybody watch Coach Shrewsberry’s press conference? It was a disgusting press conference. He referred to TDR as “some 23-year-old foreign dude” and then talked about his players were “18 or 19 year old kids.” The context was clear: he was making excuses. Not only is Shresberry a fat coach who lost a game against our team, but he’s a fucking sore loser. Somebody tell this fat coach what leadership is about….it sure as hell aint what this tubby exhibited.

[zh00s]

denigrating someone for ad hominem attacks by lobbing ad hominem attacks against them.

[newjerseyhoo]

@HiltonHeadHoo

He has a passing awareness what constitutes a foul in our league.

That’s a great way to describe it!