LBSU loses it late to Wisconsin, Big West teams getting screwed on the road

Long Beach dropped a second close game Sunday afternoon at the Kohl Center in Madison.

They play their first home game at The Walter Pyramid Saturday night and its homecoming, should be an exciting one to watch.

On to other issues...

Its absurd that Big West teams are forced to travel to play big schools and have to face that conference's officials. It's bad enough for Long Beach to have to fly to Utah and Wisconsin to get a marquee game but to have to play against the zebras on top of the other team's players and fans is too much.

LBSU had twice as many fouls called against them on Sunday and Northridge has it even worse tonight against Stanford.

In 31 minutes thus far in Palo Alto, Northridge has been whistled for 29 fouls. Each guy only gets 5!

Can they really be that aggressive? Think I am biased to the Big West?

You want bias? I was born and raised in Palo Alto and root for Stanford more than any college team in that country but this is ridiculous!

By contrast Stanford has 13 fouls. Its one thing for a perimeter-laden team like Long Beach not to garner a bunch of whistles in their favor all the time if they continue to launch the long ball and not force contact inside but that's not Northridge's M.O.

Hows 38 free throws to 10? Seem fair?

Didn't think so.

They need to have these games officiated by neutral parties like the bowl games are. To expect these teams to have any chance in a hostile environment that is also being manipulated is unfair. The Big West is better this year and its premier teams have already been plagued by shoddy and unbalanced officiating that undermines the game's integrity.

Update: Stanford 103, CS Northridge 85
Or in another way: Stanford 47, CS Northridge 12 (FTA's)

At BW Media Day Bobby Braswell, head coach at Northridge seemed upset when asked about all the non-conference road games. "Nobody will play us at home," he said. Looks like home-court advantage really is an advantage thus far for the power conferences when they host Big West schools. What a shame.