I Can't Complain (but sometimes I still do)

Ucla beat USC last night 70-65 in Men's Basketball last night, largely thanks to a discrepancy in free throw shooting in the amount of 31-5. What this means is that the game officials determined that a USC player was fouled in the act of shooting just twice in a span of 40 minutes of basketball.

Twice.

Two.

2.

How this happened, I have no idea. USC attempted 52 field goals in the game, and had 13 turnovers that may or may not have been the result of non-calls. That's roughly 65 times down the court, and only twice did a shooting foul call go USC's way. It would be interesting to find out how the Pac10 Office of Officiating could explain this. Compounding this problem was Lod Stewart's technical as a result of anger after a teammate was called for a foul. Usually technicals are assessed on the player who complains about a foul they are personally charged with. Rarely does a teammate complain about another teammate being charged a foul. Unless it was bullshit. And the whole night was full of it.

Quick analysis:

Ucla attempted 13 free throws in the last 1:12 of the game as a result of USC's intentional-end-of-the-game fouling strategy. USC attempted 0 free throws in this time. Therefore the meaningful discrepancy is 18 to 5. If USC had 13 more free throw attempts at a (measly) 60.0% FT shooting percentage, it would have resulted in 7-8 points.

To go a step further, had the free throw attempts been equal, USC might have been leading 62-59 with 1:12 left in the game, and Ucla would have had to foul. USC may or may not have hit their foul shots to secure the win, like Ucla did do (to their credit). Still, it would have been nice to not have officials factor so heavily into a loss.