Concerned about the scoring and pace of college basketball, the NCAA made rules changes to benefit offensive freedom of movement four years ago.
But after OSU’s Tres Tinkle was tossed from Arizona’s 89-63 win Thursday after retaliating to the close defense of Arizona’s Jemarl Baker – and showing previous frustration with officials’ calls and noncalls -- OSU coach Wayne Tinkle said games aren’t being called in that spirit.
As Tres Tinkle tried to drive inside from the right wing in the second half Thursday, Baker appeared to brush him on the shoulder and then press his lower body into Tinkle, earning himself a personal foul – but then Tinkle responded with an elbow to the side of Baker’s head, earning a flagrant one technical foul.
Since it was Tinkle’s second technical foul of the game, he was ejected. (He was not ejected for the foul itself, since only the more serious flagrant two fouls warrant an immediate ejection).
“That's uncharacteristic,” Wayne Tinkle said of Tres. “But I tell you what: He's been ridden like American Pharoah all of the league and he's got to be better. He’s got to play through that. But I've told people that if the way the game's called doesn't change, that something silly is going to happen… This whole freedom of movement, all that stuff. I mean, it's hogwash. It's hogwash.”
Tres Tinkle wasn’t available after the game but Wayne also added of his son’s frustration:
“There's been this big memorandum the last few years about freedom of letting the players play, taking the physicality out of the game and it's a bunch of crap.”
UA coach Sean Miller said he didn’t think Tres Tinkle’s elbow was “a cheap shot in any way shape or form” (though he said he had not seen a replay at the time of his press conference) and also disagreed with the notion that referees are shifting against the freedom of movement emphasis.
“It's tough when you're guarding the ball and the guy has not dribbled,” Miller said. “If you're really uptight -- a lot of teams do it, you know -- the offensive player can swim, and his arms and sometimes unintentionally, it can connect,” Miller said. “But the way the game is called and the rules. … I don't want to make too much of it, because if you've ever played this game, things happen so fast it's like `wow.’
“But, so the referees made the call, and whether you agree or disagree, I think they tried to enforce the rule as it is, and unfortunately a really classy kid and a really terrific player had to leave the game and be ejected. I hate for that to be the storyline.”
Miller actually had no problem with Baker being called for his personal, since that was in fact the kind of call made in the spirit of freedom of movement.
“For Tres, I know he probably feels bad, but he shouldn't,” Miller said. “Jemarl was actually in his space and sometimes that happens. Back in the day that would have been a common move. In today's game with the rules, that's how it needs to be called and it was called.
“But I want to make sure that his career against Arizona doesn't end that way. It ends by how it should and that is that the coach that's coached against him every time knows that he is a terrific, terrific player and he's going to go on and make a lot of money playing this game as a pro.”
The Tinkle family was actually responsible for three of the four technicals in Thursday’s game: Tres and UA’s Christian Koloko were called for a double technical in the first half while Wayne Tinkle picked up a technical just after a minute after his son had been tossed.
On that one, Wayne Tinkle said he was upset that what he believed to be travel calls on both teams had not been called, and that the fouls were pretty uneven at that time (each team wound up with 19 fouls but Arizona took 28 total free throws and OSU had 15).
“When the fouls were lopsided, I'm like how's it a travel on one end and not on the other?” Wayne Tinkle said. “I think the motion of my calling the travel (he gestured the arm signal for a travel) is what it got. I didn't cuss or any of that but maybe (I was) also trying to get the guys a little fired up. I don't know."
As it turned out, there were five total technical fouls in the UA-OSU series this season: Miller picked one up in Corvallis when he argued that Ethan Thompson should have been called for a foul when blocking Nico Mannion’s layup.
That technical led to OSU tying the game at 41 on the ensuing free throws and the Beavers took a lead for good three minutes later.
On Thursday, Arizona completed a 9-0 run when Mannion hit the two free throws resulting from Wayne Tinkle’s technical and the Wildcats led 58-40 with 12 minutes left, never to be challenged again.
Both times, if the technical didn’t change the momentum, they at least strengthened it.
“I mean when you take the team’s best player off the court of course it affects the game,” Miller said. “So just Tres Tinkle’s presence versus him exiting the game it's going to favor the, the opponent of Oregon State. But the other parts of it I think we're pretty inconsequential in terms of the coach, the technical or whoever got the technical.”
Also inconsequential to Thursday's game, as it turned out, was Miller’s demonstrative anger before, during and after the third media timeout of the first half.
But maybe not if it happens in a closer game.
Arizona had given up an open 3 to OSU’s Jerod Lucas, and in the timeout huddle with eight minutes left in the first half, a clipboard could be heard slamming against the McKale Center floor. After the timeout, Miller threw his towel on the floor.
Even though the Wildcats wound up winning by 26, they had shown the kind of pattern that worried Miller deeply.
“We didn't know who we were guarding,” Miller said. “Those are November mistakes. You don't make that mistake in February. That's the play that ends up beating you. It’s not the last play of the game -- it's every play and there's no excuse for five players to not know who we have and two of Lucas's 3-point shots came because we didn't identify the players that we were guarding. It's not one player’s fault; it's everybody's fault.”
Miller went on, noting that UA didn’t allow OSU to have successful backdoor passes or inbounds plays but broke down in other areas.
“We can't allow them to get an offensive rebound on a missed free throw,” Miller said. “It's the little things at this time of year that mean more, because every team is kind of the best version of themselves and you have a lot of players and teams that are playing for a lot, playing their heart out, and it's those mistakes that we make that a lot of times come back to haunt us.
“If we make that mistake on Saturday and we give him six points because we don't know who we're guarding, I mean, it's gonna be hard to beat Oregon. Right? So I'm going to hold the bar incredibly high in those areas because that's things that we can control. It's being a well-prepared team that's not going to beat themselves. And so that's really what that was about.”
Speaking of Oregon, the Ducks will have even more incentive to come into McKale Center on Saturday with an edge. Because if Oregon loses to the Wildcats they are likely out of the Pac-12 race, having lost 77-72 at ASU later on Thursday.
Only Colorado, ASU and UA are now in a loss-column tie atop the Pac-12.
Even before ASU beat the Ducks, Miller said Saturday's game "is like March Madness."
So while he praised difference-makers Josh Green (18 points), Nico Mannion (16 points, six assists) and Max Hazzard (15 points), Miller also talked up Payton Pritchard and the rest of the Ducks, who have won their last seven of nine against Arizona.
“Their program speaks for itself,” Miller said. “They’ve got an outstanding team and coach, they've been in the winner's circle, and they've played well against us in McKale, and we have to be ready.
"The last time that we went from Thursday to a Saturday game (at McKale) was USC to UCLA, and UCLA took it to us. So we have to play with everything we have. The teams that can play the best at this time of year, great things happen for them, and we want to be that team.”
