Another #1 Preferred Program Needs the Officiating to Escape

Another rigged game in the Sweet 16.

North Carolina just defeated Ohio University 73-65 in the first overtime game of the 2012 NCAA Tournament.

Never should've gotten there -- never should've been close -- and the Tarheels needed to go home.

For the second time in this tournament (thought not QUITE as obviously as the Syracuse-Asheville debacle -- oh, by the way, Syracuse is now one of the Elite Eight...), the referees hand an elite #1 seed a completely unjustified victory.

Ohio University ran UNC off the court in the second half to erase a halftime deficit, however:

• We can again begin the trace of this back to the 12:00 media timeout -- in this case, one play before it. After a North Carolina miss (this is after Ohio University had already had two attempts to take the lead for the first time in the game), the ball is ruled to go off the Xavier player, however the replay clearly shows the only guy to touch it was the North Carolina player under the basket.
• By the time 8:06 is left in the game, the foul count is 18 for Ohio U (and 2 players with 4) to 8 for North Carolina. By the end of regulation, it's 20-11 with 3 Ohio players with 4 -- NC is in the penalty (the "Double Bonus"), it takes three minutes of the overtime to get the sixth team foul for the second half called on North Carolina. Funny thing...
• Because with about 5 1/2 minutes left and Carolina up 3, it looks like a guy gets hacked at the basket on a dunk attempt. A second dunk attempt on the next possession cuts the lead to 1, but still...
• But the biggest rigged call of the match, and the one which basically had Ohio U pack it in and go home (the overtime was a freaking afterthought Ohio U scored only two points to Carolina's ten!) was when, with Ohio leading by a point with under 45 seconds left in the game, an Ohio player takes an arm to the eye and goes down. Both coaches are screaming on the floor for a foul -- his player (the one he has to defend) hits a 3 on the other end to put NC up 2, and Ohio can't respond better than to tie into overtime.

Yeah, tell me how these games are on the up and up again?