Ask Not For Whom the Whistle Blows

After watching the fallout from the UCLA/Cal game on ESPN and a few other blogs, I can essentially give my response by copying and pasting my post from the Stanford game and changing the names. Yes, it looked like Westbrook fouled Anderson with his offhand (although the strip appeared to be all ball from my baseline seat). The Shipp shot was also borderline legal- tho really it seems like a misguided rule that needs to be looked at during the offseason. While some folks are upset that a call wasn't made, they should keep in mind that the director of Pac-10 officiating had just come down on the ref from the Stanford game for making a deciding call in the waning seconds. So it shouldn't be very surprising that the next set of officials would swallow their whistle in the critical moments of the very next game.

Once again, the point needs to be made that this wasn't the only bad call made during the contest. There were many missed calls in both directions during the game. Honestly, there's no reason to expect that Dave Libbey would ever be the leading member of a competent officiating crew?

As it is now, Cal fans should actually be happy about the way the game ended. Had Cal won the game, it might have saved Ben Braun's job and set the Cal program back a few more years. This way, Berkeley fans can say that really beat UCLA but the refs "gave" the game to UCLA and they can still get rid of Braun this summer. It's a win-win.

Given ESPN's myopic presentation of the last two UCLA games, it's reasonable to expect that there will be some backlash from college basketball fans come tournament time. But before making such a decision, please remember that if you do root for UCLA to be eliminated, you're also asking to say goodbye to the UCLA dance team. Keep that in mind if the Bruins end up meeting a Big 10 team in the 2nd round.