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UCLA v. Washington: Cry Foul! and Let Slip the Refs of War

Bumped. -BN

In the interest of furthering our discussion of the FTPTR (my suggested, significantly more vulgar alteration to the conventional acronym... here's a fun game: see if you can figure it out!), I had previously done some analysis on the foul situation from several trips to Seattle.  The result, as you would expect, is not kind to us.  Indeed, not really kind to any opponent of UW in Hec Ed. 

Simply stated, UW fouls.  A lot.  People can talk about Romar with respect, but I just yawn.  The guy runs a deep bench and "pressure" defense, all the while utilizing quick guards who, upon contact with any opposing player, do their best impression of every opponent in every Bruce Lee movie post-kick.  They flail around like their drowning in a swimming pool, and fling their body to the court as if Isaac Newton had suddenly cranked up the gravity. 

So here goes:

In our last few meetings with Washington, in Seattle, the foul situation has been… absurd, to say the least.

In 2008-2009, there were a grand total of 46 fouls called in our game. We were whistled 28 separate times, UW only 18. Darren Collison, by far our best player that year, fouled out. Drew Gordon had 4 fouls, which severely limited him. Justin Dentmon and Q Pondexter maxed out the Washington team with 4 fouls each.

More "fun" after the jump.

And now the fun starts. 2007-2008, we came to Seattle ranked #4 in the country, only to have a wonderful game with 44 total fouls called. We lost Russell for the game. UW? They had one player, Pondexter, with 4 fouls. 44 total fouls in a game? 46 the year after? These games were not even basketball so much as they were whistling practice or free throw exhibitions. We’re not going to see a fair game.

And now, the highlight of my little post here: 2005-2006, our first final four year. We strolled up to #24 Washington ranked #12 in the country. What did the game look like? Imagine a basketball game, 40 minutes. Now imagine that basketball game interrupted 54 times. I’m not good at math, but thats 1.35 fouls PER MINUTE. That’s not a basketball game. That’s a traffic cop telling people stopgostopgostopgo. 54 fouls, 27 on each team. But guess who got the worst? Our Bruins. Ced Bozeman and Ryan Hollins both fouled out, and we lost AA, Farmar, and Aboya for plenty of minutes with 4 fouls each. Who did Washington lose? Jamaal freaking Williams. THE Jamaal Williams, the linchpin of their offense, stalwart of ther def… who am I kidding. Kid doesn’t matter at all. That’s right folks. Brockman, Roy, Jensen and Appleby all had 4, but none fouled out. Shocking.

So my analysis is this.  While UW doens't necessarily completely outweigh us in terms of foul disparity, what I gather from these statistics is that they never, EVER lose players to fouling out.  Even in a game with 27 fouls called on Washington, not a single player fouled out.  We had two.  We always seem to lose key contributors: DC in 2008-09, 07-08 we lost Russell, and 05-06 we lost a surging Ryan Hollins and Ced Bozeman, at the time one of our best defenders.  Expect to see at least one of our most productive players fouling out.  I'm going to avoid the obvious (Smith) and say probably Lazeric Jones.  It will be a key contributor. 

Another thing my search yielded was a significant foul-shot disparity.  Now since we noted that against St. Johns we were clearly the more aggressive team, that doesn't necessarily indicate unfairness, so I will not make much of that.  But in the end, look for at least 3 players to have 3 fouls by the end of the first, and UW to have one, at most two.  Look for us to lose a player with 10 minutes left, and another in the last 5 minutes.  UW will not have anyone foul out. 

I greatly dislike Lorenzo Romar.  He is a good recruiter, but coaches like he's in a street fight.  No respect for the opponent, do whatever it takes to win.  When, as noted, John Wooden calls one of your players out, you know you're doing something wrong as a coach.  So let's get up there, kick some serious Husky ass, and not give the FTPTRs a chance to steal this game away from us.  GO F$&%ING BRUINS.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of BruinsNation's (BN) editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of BN's editors.

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