Refs swallowed their whistles when Jimmer had the ball

I wasn't able to participate in the game-time chat, but I'm curious if it came up that the refs seemed determined not to call any fouls on the Falcons when Jimmer had the ball. It seemed like they let them do whatever they wanted, and no foul. Many of Jimmer's turnovers were really blatant fouls. Anyone think that maybe they saw the 16 for 16 free throws against UNLV, and decided that was too many?

That was a physical game. Jimmer wasn't kidding when he said it was the most physical one he's played. Jimmer was the first person to get to the line last night and that wasn't until the 19 min mark in the 1st half. The refs definitely swallowed their whistles.

I believe they did this as well. The problem is the refs don't want Jimmer to be shooting 16 FTs a game so they are afraid to send him to the line. I don't know what the answer is.



I think they see that Jimmer leads the league in FTAs and feel he already gets to the line enough. So they let fouls go. Jimmer has shot 98 FTAs in 10 conference games, which is 36 more than Josh Watkins 62 FTAs who has shot the second most. He's made 47 more FTs than Watkins as well.



So they don't know what to do. They want the game to flow so they don't every foul committed against Jimmer. But they wind up letting so much go that it's clear they're trying not to send him to the line. It's got to be very frustrating for the fans of both teams and the officials.



They're trying to balance the game instead of calling the game - which is what they should be doing. Call the fouls and make the teams adjust to how they want to defend Jimmer. Don't let them get by with lazy defense on Jimmer.

kitic77 has nailed it. It's obvious that they are trying so hard to appear objective that they are clearly letting other teams get away with hammering Jimmer all night long.



If a foul is a foul, call it a foul. If teams can't guard Jimmer, well, we already know they can't.

I wouldn't be surprised if the Wyoming officials were told the same thing, but had a few guys in there who said, "well yes..but. That's a foul! THWEET!"



The problem is that when you stop calling fouls, Basketball can be dangerous. Also, I think 80% of the fouls that WERE called were questionable rebounding/loose ball fouls. No one gets hurt on those, but when 3 guys are bringing their arms down on a Jimmer drive to the hoop...nothing. J



immer took several nasty spills this game. He got right back up, but I bet he's pretty bruised this morning.

The beauty is that Jimmer and crew just sent a huge message that even if you play Jimmer as physical as possible, deny him the ball, and benefit from the refs not making hand check calls, that the Cougs can still embarass you by 40 on the road.



Air Force is not athletic enough to afford to attempt what they tried and the rest of the team rocked them to a tune of a 73 FG %.



This is why last years Kstate team beat BYU, Jimmer didn't get calls and the Wildcats had 2 of the fastest guards in the country. There are very few teams that can match that speed this year.



You can't beat BYU with "Jimmer Rules" you can only beat BYU by exploiting our soft interior D and foul prone bigs. Play the Cougs straight up, with your best defender on Jimmer and hope the rest of the team doesn't show then hope you have some finishers inside on offense..... and regardless of that formula for success, if Jimmer is on fire, it's game over for you (ala Arizona)



It worked for UNM at the Pit (just barely considering our 13 point lead with 8 minutes left) and it worked for UCLA on "John Wooden worship day" who bears the namesake of the highest individual award that is Jimmers to lose now.

I guarantee Hair thompson told refs to do what they can to make Jimmer go away. It's funny both sides (BYU and non-BYU) can't wait to leave the conference. I think it's because both sides can't wait to watch BYU nationally.

I don't know if they're trying to be objective. They're just trying to keep the game flowing. They're trying to manipulate the game - there's no other term for it. They are not calling it as they see it. They simply don't want to send Jimmer to the line 25 times a game. So they're trying to limit the fouls called on him. They don't want to foul out three or four opponents.



Teams realize this, so they employ a "hack-a-Jimmer" philosophy. But instead of fouling Shaq and sending him to the line to earn his buckets, they're fouling Jimmer and hope the refs feel that Jimmer has already gotten to the FT line enough that game or that he'll get to the line enough before the game is over and a foul won't be called.

kitic77 wrote:
I don't know if they're trying to be objective. They're just trying to keep the game flowing. They're trying to manipulate the game - there's no other term for it. They are not calling it as they see it. They simply don't want to send Jimmer to the line 25 times a game. So they're trying to limit the fouls called on him. They don't want to foul out three or four opponents.



Teams realize this, so they employ a "hack-a-Jimmer" philosophy. But instead of fouling Shaq and sending him to the line to earn his buckets, they're fouling Jimmer and hope the refs feel that Jimmer has already gotten to the FT line enough that game or that he'll get to the line enough before the game is over and a foul won't be called.

Jimmer and the team were worn out after the huge SDSU win and UNM played that game like a Muhummed Ali rope a dope at their place. That's not going to work elsewhere when this team is rested and motivated and it's certainly not going to work with a slow unathletic team like AFA who can't double and triple Jimmer and still provide some form of help defense... The 73% fg were very tellling about how bad AFAs strategy worked against them.



I also don't personally think that Hair Thompson is rooting against BYU, unless it benefits SDSU or a potential other at large team (UNLV, UNM, CSU). AFA is not one of them. They're bathing in the hoops exposure and are willing to eat off BYUs Jimmer scraps this year. If there's no BYU this year, we're not eclipsing the SEC, ACC, Big 10, and Pac 10 as a hoops conference.

Well for teams it's damned if you do, damned if you don't. If the refs call the fouls, then Jimmer goes to the line 16 times. If the refs don't call the fouls, the game stays free flowing and allows Jackson and Brandon and others to get in a groove. It may actually be to BYU's benefit to keep the game flowing.

stuckinbig10country wrote:
Well for teams it's damned if you do, damned if you don't. If the refs call the fouls, then Jimmer goes to the line 16 times. If the refs don't call the fouls, the game stays free flowing and allows Jackson and Brandon and others to get in a groove. It may actually be to BYU's benefit to keep the game flowing.

Yep, hard to argue against the results last night particularly on the road and without one of our starters playing.

I think that the lack of call, while it hampers jimmer to some degree, it actually helps us. we have struggled to keep our bigs out of foul trouble and given the lack of depth there, referrees letting the kids play I think benefits us more then it does if they were calling everything.



I did however get the feeling last night that the referees really were calling fouls just to call them against byu. I think saying they were trying to keep it objective is giving them the benefit of the doubt. Those loose ball rebound fouls were ridiculous.



Generlaly I think its better for this team when the refs 'let them play' sort of speak.

I think my term "objective" is being misunderstood. The only way in which the refs are trying to be objective is by making a point to call more fouls against BYU than for BYU. Despite the fact that in last nights game, the Falcons were fouling Jimmer hard, any time he got inside the 3 point line.



I believe their unconscious thought is to be objective by specifically being nonobjective and calling frequent fouls against BYU while limiting calls that would normally go in BYU's favor.



The true way to be objective is to call the game the same way on both sides of the court. If you're going to let them play, let both teams play. If you're calling touch fouls, call it on both teams. Last night we saw them calling touch fouls against BYU and letting AF play physical.

If you really want proof that the refs have swallowed their whistles when it comes to Jimmer is compare last year to this year.



Last year, in 36 games, Jimmer took 491 field goals and got to the line 251 times.



This year, in 25 games, Jimmer has taken 471 field goals and gotten to the line just 177 times.



That's a 29.5% decrease in free throw attempts.



I've heard arguments that it's because he's shooting so many three this year. Jimmer has only two more 3PA this year on just 20 fewer shots, so he's not shooting that many more threes.



The refs have and are swallowing their whistles on Jimmer. I really believe that if Jimmer didn't play for BYU and had as much national hype as he has the MWC refs would have increased his FTs by 29%.

those are amazing stats Kitic. Really amazing.



The only other explanation is that Jimmer has gotten WAY worse at getting to the line and drawing a foul.

Somehow. I don't think that's the case.

I have noticed this all year long. Jimmer just doesn't get as many calls as I think he deserves. I don't know the reasoning behind it.



The best, or should I say worst, example of this happened last night in the first half. Jimmer makes a move on his defender and drives towards the basket. At about the foul line an off the ball defender jumps in front of Jimmer. They collide, Jimmer loses the ball and both players hit the deck. No whistle. It was an obvious blocking call in my opinion but even if they would have called a charge that would have been justifiable. But no call?



Like I said I don't have an explanation for it but I do not trust Hair Thompson one bit. With Independence and what he most recently did to the TCU-BSU game next year he has proven to be an ultra-vindictive yewt. So it would not surprise me one bit if he is ordering these refs to swallow their whistles.

I think this is the first time I've started a thread that had this much response! Woo-hoo! Here's more support for the argument: Even the AFA fans could see the non-calls. Take a look at the comments section, as well as the article:

http://www.gazette.com/sports/very-112615-jimmer-falcons.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

IowaCougar wrote:
I think this is the first time I've started a thread that had this much response! Woo-hoo! Here's more support for the argument: Even the AFA fans could see the non-calls. Take a look at the comments section, as well as the article:

http://www.gazette.com/sports/very-112615-jimmer-falcons.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I disagree with the author stating that Jimmer gave an 83-word sentence in his response. Ramsey just didn't punctuate the quote properly. There were several spots where he chose to insert a comma instead of a period.

stuckinbig10country wrote:
Well for teams it's damned if you do, damned if you don't. If the refs call the fouls, then Jimmer goes to the line 16 times. If the refs don't call the fouls, the game stays free flowing and allows Jackson and Brandon and others to get in a groove. It may actually be to BYU's benefit to keep the game flowing.

That's right. And this is hopefully what BYU learned last year in the tourney. hey, all was great when the refs called it straight up and jimmer had his show at the FT line. But when the refs swallowed v KSU, we were too one dimensional (and kstate was a much better team than this year).

So, last night, we made afa pay and didnt let the officials dictate outcome.

AND as long as the refs let us pound on the other teams bigs and not pick up ticky-tack-crap fouls, we win most of those games, bc we can pound them defensively also.

No matter why the refs are doing it, Jimmer needs to recognize how the refs are calling the game. If they aren't going to give him those calls, he needs to look to score/contribute in other ways.



I was kind of bugged last night at the game because the whole game Jimmer was complaining to the refs about non-calls, even a possession or two after the no-call. It made him look whiny. When you don't get that call three times in a row, you need to change what you are doing, cuz the refs aren't going to change what they are doing.