How the refs will shape the battle in USC-Miami March matchup

The topic of officiating is obviously a lightning-rod subject. Fans on both sides of a matchup will naturally say they get the short end of the stick or that they would be seeded a lot higher in the NCAA Tournament if their team got the calls.

Yet, there is certainly a substantive conversation to be had on the matter of officiating and how it affects NCAA Tournament games, because it often does. Teams which received one kind of whistle in their conference for two and a half months of regular-season competition suddenly arrive at the NCAA Tournament and get a different kind of whistle. They get thrown off balance.

Teams which can adjust to a different whistle advance. Teams which fail to adjust often lose.

What nuance about the officiating will be important in the USC-Miami game? We discussed this on our game preview podcast below.

Do listen to the full conversation, but here is the essential point Ian Hest and I agreed on: This is less about the style of officiating and more about the consistency of the officiating.

What I mean by that: Some teams need a game to be called loosely at both ends of the floor. In this game, USC and Miami both need a loose whistle … when they are on defense. If the refs give both teams a loose whistle, they can defend the opponent the way they want to. What matters is if there is an imbalance between the two ends of the floor.

If a loose whistle is evenly applied in this game, officiating will be a negligible factor (other than for a specific last-second call).

Here’s more on officiating and the many other plot points of USC-Miami: