Bruingate

Oh yes, March Madness, a time of celebration around college campuses and offices everywhere. A time where kids pour their hearts out onto the court to accomplish one goal: becoming a national champion.

Could it now be known for the time when the middle-aged men in the zebra-striped shirts royally screw teams?

This season, college basketball referees have been at their worst. They have been very inconsistent, have made horrible calls down the stretch and have cost teams many games. There have been poorly officiated games every year, but I cannot think of a year when so many teams have fallen victim to calls that lost them games than compared to this season.

While referees have devastated most teams, some teams have greatly benefited from the poor judgment of the zebras. One example is UCLA, a team that has won three games because of horrible calls.

Against Stanford near the end of the regular season, the Bruins were down 63-61 with time winding down in the game. With 2.5 seconds left, Bruin guard Darren Collison drove to the hoop and tried to shoot a floater over Stanford forward Lawrence Hill.

Hill clearly blocked the ball, which should have preserved a Stanford win. What do the referees do? They call a foul on Hill because they thought there was contact on the body. Collison would make two free throws and send the game into overtime. Riding the momentum from the referees, UCLA would win the game by 10 points.

During the next game against Cal, UCLA would once again benefit greatly from terrible referees. With 15.7 seconds left, Cal was up 80-79 after a Bruins made three. They in-bounded the ball to Ryan Anderson who was immediately double-teamed by two Bruins in the corner. They knock the ball away from Anderson and out-of-bounds. It was clearly knocked away by the Bruins, but of course, the referees said it was off Cal.

On the next play, Bruin Josh Shipp drove to the hoop and made a floater where he had to shoot the ball over the back of the backboard to give the Bruins the win.

Amazing shot? Yes. Legal shot? No. The referees should have waved that shot off, but instead, Cal lost the game and their last chance to get an at-large bid into the NCAA tournament.

Finally, Bruingate would rear it's ugly head again during March Madness. In its second round match-up with Texas A&M, the Bruins made a lay-up with 9.5 seconds left in the game to give them a 51-49 lead.

Donald Sloan of the Aggies would then drive all the way down the floor and attempted a floater to tie the game. UCLA's Josh Shipp basically molested Sloan, but a foul was not called. Guard Russell Westbrook of UCLA would then pick up the loose ball and dunk it as time expired, capping the UCLA win.

You would think that the refs would be more cautious about giving UCLA anymore close calls after the first two inexcusable games, but the missed call in the Texas A&M game was the absolute worst. These three games have cost Stanford a chance at a number one seed in the NCAA tournament, Cal a chance to get into the NCAA Tournament and Texas A&M a chance to advance to the Sweet 16.

The best part of it all was the NCAA's ruling of the Texas A&M game. After watching the end of the game, the NCAA thought it was fit to take away the Westbrook dunk and keep the final score at 51-49. There was no mention of the apparent foul on UCLA.

This is the NCAA's way of saying "Sorry Aggies, we screwed you like a cheap hooker, but don't worry, here's your parting gift!"

It's not the fact that these are bad calls that are bothering me. It's the same team getting helped by these foul calls (or lack thereof). They are also occurring very late when the game is on the line. If these were to occur in the first half, it would be a different story.

Teams facing UCLA aren't the only ones complaining about the referees. Pittsburgh forward DeJuan Blair complained about the referees in his team's loss to Michigan State in the second round. He complained about the media hyping up the game being a physical battle, which in turn affected how the referees called it.

In response to the amount of controversy over the Texas A&M game and Blair's comments, a USA Today article this week explained that most of the best officials were not officiating this NCAA tournament. It explained that every referee has a period where they can't participate in March Madness, and this year just happened to have some of the best referees MIA.

It became evident during last week's game that this rule should probably retract this rule. Why would you not have your best referees officiating the most important games of your season? The NCAA is losing credibility in the eyes of Cardinal, Golden Bear, and Aggie fans.

I am just hoping karma comes into play and that UCLA gets a horrible call against them to help propel Western Kentucky into the Elite Eight.