12 minutes ago, gchs_uk9 said:

The first five fouls in the second half were called on Florida. I thought it was obvious Florida's second half game plan was to be more physical (I even think they got a little out of sorts themselves by doing so), but after those five fouls Todd Golden was going absolutely nuts on the sideline. There were about 7 straight calls that went against Houston, which certainly helped narrow the 12-point gap.

I don't say this to fault anyone and you're right, there weren't as many calls in the last 7 minutes. However, the inconsistency of the first half, the "third quarter," and then the last "quarter" is not good. I'm not totally sure how you fix it, though.

It was obvious Florida came out in the second half trying to "out Houston," Houston, but that soon went out the window when Florida was at five fouls a couple of minutes in.

8 hours ago, gchs_uk9 said:

The first five fouls in the second half were called on Florida. I thought it was obvious Florida's second half game plan was to be more physical (I even think they got a little out of sorts themselves by doing so), but after those five fouls Todd Golden was going absolutely nuts on the sideline. There were about 7 straight calls that went against Houston, which certainly helped narrow the 12-point gap.

I don't say this to fault anyone and you're right, there weren't as many calls in the last 7 minutes. However, the inconsistency of the first half, the "third quarter," and then the last "quarter" is not good. I'm not totally sure how you fix it, though.

 

8 hours ago, bugatti said:

I can't imagine reffing a Houston game. They foul almost every play and force the refs to adjust to the more physical style. When it gets out of hand, they try to overcorrect, and you get the inconsistency we saw last night.

I think bugatti hit on what happened. Refs will adjust if the game is getting too physical. That is what happened early in the second half. The refs were letting them play but then it went a little too far and the refs had to reel it back in. That spurt of fouls on both teams early in the second half was that - reel it back in. Then things calmed down and less fouls called the last part of the game.

On 4/8/2025 at 2:29 AM, Breds82 said:

I don't understand how the officials changed how they were going to change how they called the game from half to half. 1st half was like an the original UFC. Second half and contact was called and Houston had 3 in 9 seconds. I thought they let them play to rough in the first half, but Houston shouldn't be penalized for be consistent and not the officials. 

Houston simply freaked out the last few minutes. To me Florida set up a defense that was not going to lose the game on an open 3. Houston had a chance to drive to the hoop but looked to be playing for the win. Ugly as sin but one heck of an exciting game.

4 fouls in the 1st half; 26 fouls in the 2nd half.

I went to bed at halftime, knowing the refs would be way more involved in the 2nd half.

The flow of the 1st half was awful because of the officiating & based on comments I've seen the flow of the 2nd half wasn't very good either because of officiating.

I get letting them play, but that 1st half was not it.

The officiating in this game had absolutely nothing to do with the outcome, players decided the outcome.

3 hours ago, nikeman49 said:

The officiating in this game had absolutely nothing to do with the outcome, players decided the outcome.

Agree completely. 

But there's no excuse for the inconsistency between halves. 

1 hour ago, TheDeuce said:

Agree completely. 

But there's no excuse for the inconsistency between halves. 

These officials were calling the National Cship game, they wouldn’t have been there if they were known to be “inconsistent” so maybe the style of play by both teams had a little something to do with it, players dictate the way officials work a game.

5 minutes ago, nikeman49 said:

These officials were calling the National Cship game, they wouldn’t have been there if they were known to be “inconsistent” so maybe the style of play by both teams had a little something to do with it, players dictate the way officials work a game.

We're not talking about prior inconsistencies that may or may not have been present. 

There is no debating... The way the two halves were called were completely inconsistent. You can't watch that game and argue otherwise. 

20 hours ago, nikeman49 said:

The officiating in this game had absolutely nothing to do with the outcome, players decided the outcome.

100%
However, that doesn't mean the game wasn't poorly officiated.

It's easy to see that more fouls were called in the second half. Florida came out more aggressive and picked up several quick fouls on Condon and others as they were trying to tighten up their defense by being more aggressive early on. Then later on Florida was again more aggressive on the offensive end this time and drew some fouls during their comeback. Houston was never very aggressive on the offensive end in the second half, thus they drew less fouls than did Florida. 

A disparity in the numbers of fouls called on one team versus the other doesn't mean it was inconsistent, game play can determine that.

I agree the refs called more in the second half, but a lot of that can be explained by how the game played out.

I was rooting for Houston, FWIW.

As a whole I liked how the tournament was called. For the most part they let the players play. It wasn't the foul fest that we watched all season in the SEC. Refs did a good job, for the most part, making sure they actually saw a foul committed as opposed to blowing a whistle in anticipation of a foul being committed. 

I also didn't see a lot of flopping or a player throwing their head back and automatically drawing a foul, that was refreshing.