USF coach berates WCC officials
University of San Francisco coach Jessie Evans seems determined to make his venture into this year’s West Coast Conference Tournament a memorable one – even before his fourth-seeded Dons, who earned a first-round by into the quarterfinals, take their first shot on Saturday evening.
On Tuesday afternoon, less than 24 hours after losing 75-72 on the road to WCC regular-season champion Gonzaga, Evans voiced his displeasure over having to return to the top-seeded Bulldogs’ McCarthey Athletic Center for this year’s tournament, which kicks off with a pair of first-round games on Friday.
Evans said he felt Gonzaga’s crowd intimidated the officials during Monday’s regular-season finale, which was decided on a last-second 3-pointer by the Bulldogs’ Pierre Marie Altidor-Cespedes.
He expressed concern over letting another pro-Zags crowd have too much of an effect as this year’s tournament plays out.
Pointing to GU’s 23-7 edge in free-throw opportunities during Monday’s game, Evans suggested his Dons were not given a fair shake by the officiating crew of Jim Stupin, Mark Reischling and Deron White.
“Unfortunately, you can’t out-free throw a team,” he said, adding that he has heard other coaches talk about GU’s hostile crowd. “I think they do intimidate the officiating in whatever the crowd does, and that’s what they’re supposed to do.
“It’s just unfortunate.”
Evans said he felt like he was “just saying publicly what other coaches feel,” and added he would prefer the tournament be played a neutral site – preferably in Los Angeles or the Bay Area, where a home crowd like GU’s might be less of a factor.
“Their crowd does an excellent job of being coordinated and knowing how to cheer and when to cheer,” he explained. “I think it’s great. It’s awesome.”
“But it’s unfortunate, I think, that the officiating gets intimidated a little bit. Just look. Stats don’t lie.”
GU coach Mark Few thought Evans’ remarks were unwarranted.
“I don’t think guys should ever say that,” he said. “That’s questioning the integrity of the game of basketball. That’s questioning the integrity of officials.”
In defense of Monday night’s officiating crew, Few pointed out that Stupin and Reischling have both officiated the NCAA’s Final Four, and said he thought, because of the Monday night format, the WCC was getting better officials assigned to their games than in years past.
Of the free-throw discrepancy in Monday night’s game, Few added, “When you have the best offensive player in the country (Adam Morrison) – and I think people the last month, basically, just went out and tried to physically take him off his game – he deserves to shoot a lot (of free throws).”
Few remarked that his hard-to-guard duo of Morrison and senior center J.P. Batista was a bigger factor in Monday’s foul numbers than the crowd.
“Most coaches know – or I assume they know – that dribble penetration and throwing the ball inside to your big guys puts a lot of foul pressure on people,” he explained. “Which are certainly two things that Adam and J.P. do really well.”