A friend (former student), who is a UM grad & a Griz fan... now a hoops ref in another state, called post-game and we discussed it. He said the pressure on a ref to call a "fair" game in post-season is sometimes almost unbearable. By the end of the season they know the coaches and their tactics, they know the players, especially their idiosyncrasies (who travels, who flops, who whines, who talks excessive trash, who's a bit dirty etc.).
In the post-season, he said, most refs try to focus on allowing game flow, avoiding all but the most obvious infractions... allowing a more physical game. "We get graded, you know," he said. The post-halftime ramp up of Cat D pressure on Whitney and Moody was sudden and very physical and, he thinks, possibly also caught the refs off-guard. He thinks the refs made the right call (upon review) of the contact between Oke and Olmstead that hurt the Bobcat. But, he felt officials could have made a different call (after review) when it was obvious Moody was being clearly physically restrained before he got his intentional foul. None of that would have mattered, he said... saying he's called "dozens" of games where momentum suddenly shifts and the game ends in a "totally unexpected, sometimes sudden, shock."
Which then reminded me of Montana's classic, "shocking" 2010 Big Sky Championship win over Weber State (in Ogden)... down 20 at halftime before Anthony Johnson got hot... when with seconds remaining, AJ and Will Cherry trapped Damian Lillard at half court, Will stole the ball & the Griz won by a single point.
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