UCLA shouldn’t need refs’ help to win

Somewhere, the gods of UCLA basketball are smiling.

After a pair of miracle wins this past week by the Bruins, they’re probably doing backflips and Randy Moss-style celebration dances this very moment.

Though the wins (can we call them that?) could not have been good for any UCLA fan’s health, the end result was exactly what the Bruins wanted.

However, not everything that’s shiny is gold. Or even valuable metal, for that matter.

On the surface, Thursday’s overtime victory against Stanford and Saturday’s “gotcha again!” win against California both look fantastic. They gave the Bruins their third consecutive regular-season Pac-10 title, sent senior Lorenzo Mata-Real out on a winning note and probably locked up a No. 1 seed for the Big Dance.

That’s all just downright beautiful.

But there’s one glaring problem: The Bruins probably shouldn’t have won either of those games. And by “probably,” I mean “no way in hell.”

I’ve ripped Pac-10 refs on these pages before, and today is no different just because those calls went the Bruins’ way instead of hurting them. But to say calls simply went UCLA’s way would be a tremendous understatement.

The refs rescued the Bruins as if they were imitating the Red Cross. They bailed them out like sailors on a sinking ship. They threw gifts at the Bruins as though it were everyone’s birthday.

It was some of the worst officiating I’ve seen since I umpired my own brother’s baseball game a few years ago.

On Thursday, Stanford had the upset all but sewn up with a two-point lead and six seconds remaining. Collison streaked up the court with the final seconds ticking off the clock and pulled up for a jumper to tie the game. Lawrence Hill put up a hand and cleanly blocked Collison’s attempt, then was called for a foul.

There was no foul.

Collison neatly sank both free throws, sending the game into overtime, where the Bruins put it away.

On Saturday, the Bears were in position to pull off their biggest win in years with a one-point lead and possession. Cal forward Ryan Anderson caught the inbounds pass on the baseline with 15 seconds to go and was mugged by Russell Westbrook. The Bruins were clearly trying to foul. Anderson fell over as the ball bounced off a couple of arms and legs and sailed out of bounds.

No foul was called, and the ball was awarded to UCLA, leading to Josh Shipp’s ridiculous circus shot over the backboard to seal the game.

Without even getting into the legalities of Shipp’s game-winner ““ it’s debatable to say the least ““ it’s clear the Bruins needed a little help from the zebras to pull out those two wins.

I’m not saying the refs were favoring UCLA in any way. (They were so bad that students, including me, booed them mercilessly at halftime on Thursday.) And I’m not trying to ignore the clutch play of Shipp, Westbrook, Collison, Kevin Love and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, who all made huge contributions to those two wins. But take out the poor officiating down the stretch, and it wouldn’t have been quite enough.

And that’s scary.

I’ve been saying this all season, and I’ll say it again: This Bruin team can and should beat anybody in the country. They shouldn’t need controversial calls to go their way at the ends of games and shouldn’t need to rely on Pac-10 officiating to solidify their status as one of the nation’s elite.

Everybody already knows UCLA belongs on that level, so here’s hoping we can leave the drama in the past and start blowing out a few teams.

E-mail Feder at jfeder@media.ucla.edu if you think the best thing about March Madness will be having nonconference refs.

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