Gonzaga goes down too! Well, can’t buy your way to the top 
Well, I didn’t watch it, but some of the reports coming out is that the officiating was very suspect in the final minutes (Jim ought to love that!).
Wasn’t the reason for the loss. They were big inside. But, when the numbers are broken down, our bigs scored the same and rebounded the same. There were other stats the same as well. The turnovers were 13-6 with BYU the 13. But points off of turnovers was 13-11 only two less points than WSU. FT shooting wasn’t that much of a difference.
Two key areas that were the difference was 3 point shooting and bench scoring. While their percentage wasn’t great, ours was terrible. 3-20, 15%. They were 9-27 and hit big shots to stretch a 3 point game to a 20 point game in the 2nd half. We were gassed by the 2nd half because the bench were so bad. Atiki was okay but hacking away with the fouls.
They were much like SF and shot better from distance.
The most significant issue is the one that caused problems for all of the western teams. The officiating out here is different than it is back east and in the midwest. The Pac 12, WCC and other western conferences play a less physical type of basketball. The officials that do western geographic region games (we know who they are) make ticky tack calls and don’t allow for much physical play. That hurts teams come tournament time (ie. Zags and Arizona). The east teams are better prepared because they are allowed to do more banging, holding, reaching, bumping, etc. than west teams are used to.
Arkansas and Houston put a beatdown on Gonzaga and Arizona, the top two seeds, because they were allowed to play overly aggressive defensive games.
I don’t like it because I think it places importance on physicality over skill and talent but that’s how it goes. Also, I think Duke is getting the favored treatment because of Duke coach retiring.
You are probably right about the way games are called depending on where they are played. But, the players should be able to be prepared for that. Gonzaga had some close games at the end and just didn’t look as good. Their shooting wasn’t as good as it was earlier in the season. Much like Barcello.