NCAA Round 1 GDT: Southern California vs South Dakota State Cassell Coliseum 7pm CT

[OldHare]

Highly hypocritical for Littleton to cite "calls going for" Selland in presser (approx. 3:20) when she and USC benefitted from gifted possession near end of regulation that resulted in her trey.

I am surprised the refs did not go back to add more time on the clock after another review.

[Southeast]

That 4th quarter was one of the clunkiest, oddest, almost-surreal, periods of basketball I’ve seen in a long time. I’m almost shocked USC didn’t hit another 3-pointer when they somehow got back within 3 late in OT. It felt like there was some weird force in the universe that was going to make sure our season ended. It was nice to be able to look away to the wrestling tournament when it got too frustrating.


Survive and advance. Now they’re playing with house money against a 1-seed on their home floor. Maybe they find some magic.

[LetsGoRabbits]

I love how some on social media saw that as evidence the "fix was in." Umm, they discussed OT seconds later.

Was I impressed by Gray? Not really, but latching on to a flub about "regulation" game being over seems a stretch.

As for Williams, I'd take her over Newitt in a heartbeat.

it is really interesting how people can have such different perspectives. i have already made too big a deal of the announcers. i thought they were extremely bad last night and mostly that was from a standpoint of preparation. i thought they expected USC to win but i would not say i felt they were rooting for USC.

i know some of Newitt's finer moments have been discussed, but i am curious what you (and others) dislike so much about him as an announcer? i DO agree that he seems biased toward usd, as long as their team was actually good. but i think he is pretty knowledgeable and does regularly offer good insight. i find Elsen to be FAR FAR more biased than Newitt is.

Williams last night mentioned over and over that USC had a height advantage. they really did not. they always had the ONE tallest girl on the floor but overall there was very little hiehgt advantage or disadvantage. finally well into the second half grey did point that out. seems like well prepared announcers who want to give a true representation of the game would have helped the audience to understand that much much earlier. MOST of the game they had it sounding like Purdue against FDU which it was definitely definitely not

i did think they were 2 of the poorest commentators i can remember (but that was mostly just a bad surprise. obviously they have zero impact on the game), and i did think they expected one team to win, but i did not think they were rooting for one team. also it would be interesting to know what their true expectation was. i can admit that just because it sounded, TO ME, like they expected USC to win that does not mean it is true

[jakejc795]

it is really interesting how people can have such different perspectives. i have already made too big a deal of the announcers. i thought they were extremely bad last night and mostly that was from a standpoint of preparation. i thought they expected USC to win but i would not say i felt they were rooting for USC.

i know some of Newitt's finer moments have been discussed, but i am curious what you (and others) dislike so much about him as an announcer? i DO agree that he seems biased toward usd, as long as their team was actually good. but i think he is pretty knowledgeable and does regularly offer good insight. i find Elsen to be FAR FAR more biased than Newitt is.

Williams last night mentioned over and over that USC had a height advantage. they really did not. they always had the ONE tallest girl on the floor but overall there was very little hiehgt advantage or disadvantage. finally well into the second half grey did point that out. seems like well prepared announcers who want to give a true representation of the game would have helped the audience to understand that much much earlier. MOST of the game they had it sounding like Purdue against FDU which it was definitely definitely not

i did think they were 2 or the poorest commentators i can remember (but that was mostly just a bad surprise. obviously they have zero impact on the game), and i did think they expected one team to win, but i did not think they were rooting for one team. also it would be interesting to know what their true expectation was. i can admit that just because it sounded, TO ME, like they expected USC to win that does not mean it is true

On Newitt, I'll never dispute the fact that he's knowledgeable; however, as I've mentioned multiple times, he has a propensity to make statements along the lines of "It looked like <Jacks' opponent's name> was just playing hard" or "Looks like SDSU/the Jacks got away with one" much more frequently than extending the Jacks the same grace.

On Williams' statements regarding Marshall's height advantage -- yes, that was mentioned, but she also made a point of complimenting the Jacks' defense, ballhandling, and "tenacity" (without using that term). Moreover, did you ever notice how she mentioned that USC failed to capitalize on that height advantage/how the Jacks "stuck around" despite what many would characterize as a "poor start"?

[jakejc795]

I am surprised the refs did not go back to add more time on the clock after another review.

Haha, I see what you did there. USC definitely got more than one gift in that sequence.

[goon]

That 4th quarter was one of the clunkiest, oddest, almost-surreal, periods of basketball I’ve seen in a long time. I’m almost shocked USC didn’t hit another 3-pointer when they somehow got back within 3 late in OT. It felt like there was some weird force in the universe that was going to make sure our season ended. It was nice to be able to look away to the wrestling tournament when it got too frustrating.


Survive and advance. Now they’re playing with house money against a 1-seed on their home floor. Maybe they find some magic.

That wierd force you felt was 1 ref who seemed to have a lot ridding on usc winning. We had 3 blocking calls that should have been charges and the ball out of bounds going to usc. When the announcers were like, well im not an official so i cant really comment. That shows how bad the refs were. My brother was the one to point out it seemed it was the older male ref. The female ref seemed the best of the 3. When they made the 3 to tie it, my comment was well we need to make a basket because no way the refs will give us the benefit of the call at the end of the game. Looked pretty clear Myah was hit across the arms on that last shot.

[goon]

Haha, I see what you did there. USC definitely got more than one gift in that sequence.

We joked about that also. Like what can we as refs do to help usc win even though the calls are going there way anyway.

[jakejc795]

That wierd force you felt was 1 ref who seemed to have a lot ridding on usc winning. We had 3 blocking calls that should have been charges and the ball out of bounds going to usc. When the announcers were like, well im not an official so i cant really comment. That shows how bad the refs were. My brother was the one to point out it seemed it was the older male ref. The female ref seemed the best of the 3. When they made the 3 to tie it, my comment was well we need to make a basket because no way the refs will give us the benefit of the call at the end of the game. Looked pretty clear Myah was hit across the arms on that last shot.

Yes, that final USC possession in regulation, Williams mentioned "maybe I need better glasses" due to her disagreement with the call.

Plug, that into the Newitt-strator, and I'm guessing the best we could hope for is "that could go either way"

[LetsGoRabbits]

On Newitt, I'll never dispute the fact that he's knowledgeable; however, as I've mentioned multiple times, he has a propensity to make statements along the lines of "It looked like <Jacks' opponent's name> was just playing hard" or "Looks like SDSU/the Jacks got away with one" much more frequently than extending the Jacks the same grace.

On Williams' statements regarding Marshall's height advantage -- yes, that was mentioned, but she also made a point of complimenting the Jacks' defense, ballhandling, and "tenacity" (without using that term). Moreover, did you ever notice how she mentioned that USC failed to capitalize on that height advantage/how the Jacks "stuck around" despite what many would characterize as a "poor start"?

on Newitt, YES i agree he says those things. the worst (in my poor memory) during the covid year, 2 games the same weekend in brookings, Sjerven nails Myah with a serious forearm to the face as i recall and his comment was something like, well that is just a normal basketball play

BUT i think those things are almost ALWAYS in games with usd. in games we are not playing usd, i think he is quite fair and could even imagine fans of other teams thinking he gives the jacks too many breaks and / or compliments

On Williams, as i said earlier, i NEVER thought she or other was cheering for USC!! just felt like expected them to win.

in both cases (Newitt and Williams) great examples of how our personal perspective is ALWAYS personal. always interesting to see how multiple people can see, hear, experience the exact same event and have something between mildly and wildly different idea about what actually happened

[jakejc795]

on Newitt, YES i agree he says those things. the worst (in my poor memory) during the covid year, 2 games the same weekend in brookings, Sjerven nails Myah with a serious forearm to the face as i recall and his comment was something like, well that is just a normal basketball play

BUT i think those things are almost ALWAYS in games with usd. in games we are not playing usd, i think he is quite fair and could even imagine fans of other teams thinking he gives the jacks too many breaks and / or compliments

On Williams, as i said earlier, i NEVER thought she or other was cheering for USC!! just felt like expected them to win.

in both cases (Newitt and Williams) great examples of how our personal perspective is ALWAYS personal. always interesting to see how multiple people can see, hear, experience the exact same event and have something between mildly and wildly different idea about what actually happened

If we're being honest, I'd suspect that a poll of non-Midwest media (and even some in our region) would expect a PAC-12 team (with multiple P5/G5 transfers) to beat a Summit League team. That's not to say they'd think USC would run away with the game, but that it'd be a tough matchup.

I mentioned a couple years ago that I had a theory that Newitt might make those statements regarding the Jacks so that opponents' fans wouldn't accuse him of bias, given the number of games he's a commentator for. Maybe that's the case.

[JackFan96]

That game was excruciating to watch on many levels. No flow, horrible officiating, five minutes for replays that were obvious (and still got the easiest one wrong), production value, announcers ... all of it was awful. But Selland ... beautiful. Talk about lifting your team at crunch time.

There's no way those announcers were at the game. The audio quality was akin to that of a speaker phone. And they spent nearly the entire second half just talking about how USC was hanging around just kind of expecting they would win. At the end, they gave Myah credit. Before then, it was like they expected the Lakers playing Augustana. I thought the announcers were unprepared. But if they weren't at the arena, and I don't think there's any way they were, that makes calling a game more difficult.

[MontanaRabbit]

That game was excruciating to watch on many levels. No flow, horrible officiating, five minutes for replays that were obvious (and still got the easiest one wrong), production value, announcers ... all of it was awful. But Selland ... beautiful. Talk about lifting your team at crunch time.

There's no way those announcers were at the game. The audio quality was akin to that of a speaker phone. And they spent nearly the entire second half just talking about how USC was hanging around just kind of expecting they would win. At the end, they gave Myah credit. Before then, it was like they expected the Lakers playing Augustana. I thought the announcers were unprepared. But if they weren't at the arena, and I don't think there's any way they were, that makes calling a game more difficult.

The announcers were at the game. Completely agree they were awful. They were so bad it is an insult to the women’s game. ESPN needs to supply qualified crews.

[Southeast]

That game was excruciating to watch on many levels. No flow, horrible officiating, five minutes for replays that were obvious (and still got the easiest one wrong), production value, announcers ... all of it was awful. But Selland ... beautiful. Talk about lifting your team at crunch time.

There's no way those announcers were at the game. The audio quality was akin to that of a speaker phone. And they spent nearly the entire second half just talking about how USC was hanging around just kind of expecting they would win. At the end, they gave Myah credit. Before then, it was like they expected the Lakers playing Augustana. I thought the announcers were unprepared. But if they weren't at the arena, and I don't think there's any way they were, that makes calling a game more difficult.

I don’t know if they were in the arena, but recall seeing them on camera at one point and thinking that the set looked a lot like those used at offsite locations during the covid year. I kept the sound off most of the game, finding that reduced the overall ugliness of the experience by about 33%.

[MontanaRabbit]

I don’t know if they were in the arena, but recall seeing them on camera at one point and thinking that the set looked a lot like those used at offsite locations during the covid year. I kept the sound off most of the game, finding that reduced the overall ugliness of the experience by about 33%.

In the interview with Myah after the game the commentators were in the shot. I know it’s hard to believe they were actually there but they were. Lol.

[peavy]

That wierd force you felt was 1 ref who seemed to have a lot ridding on usc winning. We had 3 blocking calls that should have been charges and the ball out of bounds going to usc. When the announcers were like, well im not an official so i cant really comment. That shows how bad the refs were. My brother was the one to point out it seemed it was the older male ref. The female ref seemed the best of the 3. When they made the 3 to tie it, my comment was well we need to make a basket because no way the refs will give us the benefit of the call at the end of the game. Looked pretty clear Myah was hit across the arms on that last shot.

Prior to the start of the game, Scotty mentioned one of the male referees officiated in the Summit League (the guy not calling the blocking fouls in the 4th). As far as the other individual, he ref'd in a 2016 final four / elite 8 game. The latter one had this Mulkey moment