Re: Refs called "defense" of Reaves & Cunningham completely different.
They were not officiated differently; they PLAY differently and with different levels of skill. In CC, you’re looking at top 5 NBA pick and quite possibly #1 in a deep draft. He is a special level of talent. He also has nice size for the role he plays. When he drives to the basket or posts up, he is VERY much under control. His moves are deliberate and he’s patient. He is polished for his age. And bottom line, again, he is just a supreme talent and supreme talents draw more fouls because they are harder to guard and defenders get tired/frustrated/desperate. And sure if a star player gets hacked a few times, he will then also start drawing calls where it looks like he got hacked, but really wasn’t. But because they put such constant pressure on a D, those calls are bound to come their way simply due to law of averages.
As was pointed out above, Reaves goes FULL BORE to the hole when he drives. This is how he HAS to do it because while he is a gifted player, he’s NOT a special level talent. He has to put in a ton of effort when he drives and he is actively seeking contract, often initiating it himself. It’s a crafty way to play and I like it. But there are risks there; the biggest one being when it doesn’t end well, it’s often in ugly fashion. Guys like that are hard to officiate because there is probably contact one way or the other almost every drive. Hard to decipher every time who initiates and whether it’s enough to warrant a whistle. It’s more of a dice roll than what CC does.
OU did not lose today because of refs. Of course there were missed calls. But nothing significant enough to swing the game. They lost because we couldn’t cash in on good defense due to our rebounding woes and because the other team had a superior talent. More the latter.
