Last night was a tough one for the Maryland Terrapins.
After opening the NCAA Tournament‘s Round of 64 with an exciting win over West Virginia, they ran into the tournament’s top overall seed.
Things didn’t go quite as well for them against Alabama.
They were beaten by 22 points while only scoring 51, which was their lowest point total since a loss to Rutgers in early January.
After the game, Maryland head coach Kevin Willard was not happy with the game’s officiating.
Full quote from Willard, who didn’t hold back much on officiating, and explained Reese’s foul trouble “changed our whole gameplan” pic.twitter.com/3i55zZjSkJ
— Inside the Black & Gold (@Insideblackgold)
The second foul call was mysterious and even the third one. I played him with two fouls all year. You know, you can’t call that second foul. Not in an NCAA Tournament game. That’s just my feeling on it.
I thought it was a horrible call and it changed the outcome of the game. I can elaborate a lot on but I will probably get in a lot of trouble. I can go in that much trouble or do you want me going in this much trouble? The second call was a terrible foul call. You can’t take our best player out of the game when the game was as physical as it was. It was a horrible call.
Willard also explained just how the foul calls against Julian Reese changed things for the Terrapins.
It changed our whole game plan. We were going to pound it inside, pound it inside. That’s what we have been doing for the last two months of the season. We played through Julian. We played at the high post through Julian. We played down low through Julian. He draws fouls. He draws double teams.
Reese’s foul trouble surely didn’t help the Terrapins’ cause as they tried to topple Bama, but he only ended up playing 7 minutes less than his season average.
This complaint would probably hold a bit more weight if this game was competitive, but Alabama was just too much for Maryland.
A few more minutes from the team’s 2nd best scorer probably wasn’t going to change that.
The post NCAA Tournament Coach Calls Out Refs After His Team Got Blown Out appeared first on BroBible.
