SI Article refuting Duke "getting all the calls"

[UrinalCake]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/sioncampus/03/03/mythbusters/index.html

This article is very sympathetic to Duke and focuses mainly on free throw differential. There are of course a lot of other issues at play regarding the Duke "myth" and unfortunately this article does little to address other matters that the Duke haters will bring up, which we as fans have heard over and over. Nevertheless, it's nice to see some attention being given to Duke's side of things.

I was also reading through some reader comments on the ESPN game recap and there were plenty of Duke fans refuting the incessant claims of others that Duke gets all the calls. Go Duke!

[77devil]

Great closing quote from MD grad. and ESPN poker talking head Norm Chad.

[bjornolf]

The writer should just point out to his cousin, Daniel, that coaches don't get gold medals at the olympics, so K couldn't let the refs touch his. ;)

He could, however, let them fondle his three NCAA rings. :eek:

[BaysideDevil]

I've had this discussion with the Duke-gets-all-the-calls crowd before showing them stats like this, and trust me, it won't matter. The comeback falls into one of two categories:

1) Duke fouls A LOT MORE than their opponents, so if the foul calls are roughly equal, then that's a clear-cut sign that the refs are being lenient; if the refs called Duke games "by the book" then most of the roster would foul out.

2) It's not the quantity of fouls, it's the quality of calls they get that matter. The refs could call 10 more fouls on Duke than the other team in the first 39 minutes of the game, but it's that one foul or out-of-bounds or no-call that they get in the last minute with the score tied-up that matters.

So in summary, Duke gets all the calls. But in a way that you can't measure. Ever. And any data you do have only proves their point. Apparently college refs can throw a game in a way that makes Tim Donaghy look like an amateur.

As a footnote, when I was crunching play-by-play data a few years ago I also took out any fouls committed by the trailing team in the last 60 seconds of the game if the lead was less than 10 points (i.e., remove the intentional hacks at the end). This skewed things ever further from the "Duke gets all the calls" hypothesis and towards (oddly enough) UNC, VT, and BC being the favorites of the refs.

It still didn't matter. Because, you know, Duke gets all the calls. Duh.

[UrinalCake]

I like how people think there's some grand conspiracy to give Duke all these wins because it's good for TV or whatever. Yet at the same time Duke's gotten bounced early in the tournament the last two years. Don't you think if the NCAA wanted to cash in on Duke's popularity, they'd pay off the tainted refs during the tournament rather than the regular season?

My personal take is that the idea of Duke getting the calls has seeped into the minds of the broadcasters and sports writers. So it's what they choose to talk about during and after the game, which continues to propagate the myth to the fans. And now people like to hate Duke, so you can garner a lot more interest by writing a post-game recap slamming Duke and the refs than you can actually talking about the game itself.