Thurs. Feb. 28, 2019 Xavier at St. John's

[MullinMayhem]

We are dead last in fouls called in conference and we lead the conference in techs. So, not such a crazy observation. I want to see Jay Wright absolutely hammered for saying the wrong thing or stepping an inch out of his box. I want to see Nova get a 33 vs. 5 discrepancy on your home court even though both teams drove about the same amount and took jumpers about the same amount. If we just shot jumpers and all X did was drive then ok maybe. But that's not the case. In fact, X was very jumper happy. Refs are angry we called them out for the SHU game and we are still receiving their lashings. Sometimes there really is a wolf when a boy cries.

[ChestRockwell85]

I was at the game as well. Xavier got a few calls but it definitely wasn't the reason they won. Also, I don't think a lot of coaches would tolerate the way their players mouth off out there. If I were Mullin I would have sat Trimble's ass for the rest of the game, guy makes a good defensive play while his team is down 6 and you would have thought he just hit the game winning shot in a championship game or something, and Ponds, although fired up, needed to take it down a notch a few times out there as well. I am not saying I disagree with their emotion, but not controlling it only hurts your team, which it did, and the coach not controlling it just looks like that he doesn't have control over his players.

Anyway, not easy playing without one of your best players out there. It is going to be very interesting to see how it plays out for the Big East in March.

[scoscox]

Don't care about timing. 33 v. 5 at home is obvious bias. I was at the game...the refs were essentially sending Mullin to jail for going 56 in a 55. They enforced the coach's box like I've never seen before. He was an inch outside of it and they stop the game to come running over yelling at him. Mullin kept looking at them like "are you kidding?". He needed to be held back from the refs it was that bad. Mullin really gets in their heads and pisses them off so they love to screw him any chance they get. We still would've lost, but at least we would've been in it down to the wire. We have something like 15 techs this year. That's unheard of. Once again, 33 vs. 5 FT's at home...someone show me an example of that happening to someone else in the conference.

These are all signs that maybe mullin needs to change something in his approach with the refs. again, as far as the disparity, look at the offensive and defensive ft rates for both teams and you'll see that's not out of line with season averages.

i have no sympathy for these calls especially after ponds tried to rip scruggs' head off

[scoscox]

We are dead last in fouls called in conference and we lead the conference in techs. So, not such a crazy observation.

This is a sign that maybe you need to change some of the ways you play and how mullin deals with the refs. You have to make adjustments. It's not a season long anti st. john's conspiracy

[MullinMayhem]

Agree that Ponds was totally out of line. Saw that play where he grabbed Scruggs. I thought he might get ejected for that the way things were going. Glad it didn't escalate.

[Xufanintennessee]

Game was lost on rebound differential, but refs 100% made their presence known and they absolutely hate Mullin. I don't say that to exaggerate. I was at the game and they were screaming at him for being an inch outside of the coach's box like 3x. No other coach gets this BS. He kept putting his hands up like wtf is it now and pointed to Steele as if to say "he's doing the same thing!". This was at home guys...and it was 33 vs. 5 FT differential and 3 vs. 1 techs. We may have 15+ techs this year. Insanity. Some were legitimate but sorry 7x the amount of FT's for the opponent in your house screams bias. Stu Jackson needs to step in before a ref gets chased out of NYC. The crowd was ready to explode on them.

It was Christmas for X tonight and they were on the good list apparently. No team comes close to getting the short end of the stick with refs like we do. We are the ONLY team that has zero home cooking. We are like enemies in our own house to them.

OK first of all, until you get to the Jalen Reynolds level of techs you can complain. Dude racked up double digit techs all by himself every year. And yes, once you start accruing them you're public enemy number one in the ref's eyes. Secondly, gotta be able to handle adversity. Once teams get emotional because of the calls someone's gotta step in and diffuse it. I personally didn't see anyone reigning the players in. Third, Mullin continued to walk over to the monitor while the refs were there to state his case - not once, but multiple times. Perhaps the monitors are intentionally placed close to the St. John's bench for this reason but once the refs ask you to retreat. Backpedal. Mullin didn't after repeated requests and so he was put on TECH watch. During Mack years at X there were certain refs (looking at you Michael Stephens, Brent McDonald) that would let a game go. Then suddenly call the slightest of fouls. Why? The team was getting emotional. It happens. How you handle it matters.

[Hall2012]

Didn't see see this game, but usually when I watch SJU games I feel like they get away with a lot on the defensive end. They're always very aggressive getting up in the ball handler's face and reaching in on him. Maybe they just found a ref who wasn't in the mood to put up with that?

I think that refs all too often are too worried about "evening out the foul count" rather than just calling a foul a foul. When one team defends aggressively and the other passively, fouls/free throws probably won't (and shouldn't) be evenly distributed.

[SJUBBALL]

St. John’s deserved to lose. Xavier deserved to win. So tired of the ref talk. The worst call all night was when Ponds blocked some guy on X cleanly in the corner, but St. John’s was already down by 14. I’m so tired, as a St. John’s fan, of the idea that someone or something else is to blame Everytime things go wrong. You don’t lose for nearly 20 years straight because of bad luck.

Our roster is good this year but people think we should be soooo good. Like 25 wins and 13 big east wins good. That’s just not gonna happen. The roster has been overrated by St. John’s fans, and mullin is still the worst coach in the league who has yet to get a real X and O guy on the bench other than some 27 year old “guru”

Having Ponds and Heron doesn’t make you a world beater. Nova has Booth and Paschall but have struggled at times this year, even with a superior coach. Goes to show, St. John’s needs a lot more before fans can start claiming their roster is incredible.

St. John’s fans so up in arms about the season, convinced themselves that this roster was so much better than the rest of the conference. It isn’t. But if they can win this weekend they should lock up a tournament bid which is a great season for St. John’s

[DanofXav76]

I watched the whole game on TV, what an atmosphere! Just a few random thoughts:

1) I think in the first half, at one point pretty far in, there had been like 6 X fouls and 1 on St. Johns.
2) I was surprised there wasn't a flagrant 1 on the Ponds/Scruggs play. Looked like he damn near ripped his head off.
3) In the X- Nova game at Cintas last Sunday I think Nova shot 2 FTs the entire game and those were with about 2 minutes left in the game.
4) It's an older book now, but John Feinstein's "Season On the Brink" on Bobby Knight and IU. He made a point to the effect that certain coaches have antagonized certain officials over time to the point that if there is a true 50/50 call, at a critical time, late in a game, said ref will go a certain way on that call. a bit of a payback
5) I think I remember reading a few seasons back about Sean Miller out at Arizona and the head of the PAC12 officials with some kind of memo to his refs to the affect of "don't go out of your way to do them any favors" kind of thing.

Refs are humans too. It's a hard thing to get homered on your home court.

[BEXU]

St. John’s deserved to lose. Xavier deserved to win. So tired of the ref talk. The worst call all night was when Ponds blocked some guy on X cleanly in the corner, but St. John’s was already down by 14.

Clearly it was a block by Ponds on Castlin. But then Ponds should have been T'ed up for going above the shoulders on the X player. It was a tough, physical game and a battle in the paint.