Wednesday, February 3, 1999
Twilight Zone stats befuddle Lavin
COLUMN: Referee draws criticism from Bruins with questionable
calls
The players should decide the outcome of the game, not the
referees.
The frenzy of media attention surrounding the ejection of a star
Bruin guard and the head coach is a good indication that the
officials have become too involved in the outcome of the game.
In that game, starting UCLA guard Baron Davis fouled out with a
little less then five minutes to go in the game, and immediately
following that, head coach Steve Lavin was slapped with two
technical fouls and summarily ejected.
Anybody who witnessed Lavin’s explosion out of the coaching box
could not argue that Lavin did, in fact, deserve to be ejected.
But it is the events that led up to Lavin’s outburst that are
interesting. "This was the culmination of a four-game pattern of
some of the most unusual statistics I’ve seen since second grade,"
Lavin said. "There are four particular games where, if you connect
the dots, it’s one of the most unusual patterns I’ve seen in the
history of the game. It’s bordering on a `Twilight Zone’
thing."
About the ejection itself, Lavin said: "This is my first
technical ever in 26 years in basketball. As a player or a coach, I
don’t think I’ve ever even been warned. My 84-game streak as UCLA
head coach is broken." Later Lavin said, "Ninety-five percent of
the time I don’t even worry about the officiating at all, but
everybody has a breaking point."
Up to this point, UCLA has played every conference opponent
once, winning six of the nine games. In the five conference games
in which Terry Christman was not a referee, UCLA has shot 126 free
throws, for an average of 25.2 per game, and Bruin opponents have
shot 128 free throws, for an average of 25.6 free throws per
game.
In the four games that Christman has been wearing the zebra
stripes, opponents have shot 177 free throws to UCLA’s 82. That’s
an average of 45 to 21. In games that Christman has refereed, UCLA
opponents have shot 214 percent more free throws than the
Bruins.
Taking these numbers and using a standard statistical technique,
a chi-square analysis, the "p" value is less than .0001. This means
that the likelihood of this being due to chance is less than one in
10,000. In medicine, if these were treatment results, they would be
considered conclusive.
The four Christman games were Oregon State, Stanford, USC and
Washington. Three of these were UCLA’s only conference losses. The
Stanford game saw a whopping 49-15 free-throw shooting edge for the
Cardinal.
In the Oregon State game, UCLA shot 81 field goals, to the
Beavers 40, but still somehow, OSU managed 41 free-throw attempts
to the Bruins’ 22. The USC and Washington games saw Bruin opponents
out free-throw UCLA 41-29, and 47-16, respectively.
Jim Muldoon, public relations director of the Pac-10 would not
comment on the officiating, except to say that statistics like that
do not necessarily mean anything specific.
Then there is Baron Davis. Davis has been given three technical
fouls this season – and Christman issued all three. In the game
against Southern Cal, a trash-talking affair that involved words
being traded by both benches all game, Davis was given his fifth
personal and a technical foul for screaming in disappointment – to
the Sports Arena floor.
In the Washington game, Davis got his fifth and final personal
foul on what replays showed to be a highly questionable call. It
was at that point that Davis lost his composure. Later, in the
locker room, Davis was driven to the point of tears. "I feel we
were cheated and I’m tired of not saying anything," Davis said.
"It’s that same man – that Christman dude."
Christman has worked four UCLA conference games. No other
referee has worked more then two.
Part of the problem for UCLA with the large foul discrepancy is
that their two big men, center Dan Gadzuric and power forward
Jerome Moiso seem to get the most fouls. This, consequently, keeps
them on the bench much more than they would like. In the five
non-Christman games, the two tallest players have averaged 51
minutes between the two. In the four other games, they have
averaged a full 10 minutes less of playing time.
Despite the noteworthy statistics, Coach Lavin has maintained
that blaming the officiating or losing your composure is a huge
no-no.
"You always want to set a better example for your players, and
that was the first thing I told them," said Lavin. "What I did was
inexcusable. I was not justified in my actions."
Of course, there is the fallacy of false cause, an event is not
necessarily caused by another that happened before it.
At the same time, however, one must wonder what could drive a
person to their first ejection in 26 years.
Lewis wants to remind everybody that basketball is just a game.
He can be reached at [email protected].
Comments, feedback, problems?
© 1998 ASUCLA Communications Board[Home]