The are countless individual plays to point to as "bad" calls, but the the bigger thing was the overall style of officiating. The wind was definitely at Illinois' back.
About 5-6 min into the game, I told my wife that the way it was being called didn't bode well for us. This is a team that had a strong big man with a good hook shot, and outside shooters looking to get open off of high ball screens - who also played a high pressure, aggressive style of man defense. A loose whistle is practically tailor made for a team like that.
On the flip side, we play a lot in the paint and don't have dominant bigs who can score through contact. We also rely on getting opposing bigs into foul trouble by dribble penetration, fighting over screens, and drawing charges with good footwork/positioning. We don't use a lot of high screens to get looks for shooters, either. A loose whistle doesn't help us get to the line, or get opposing players in foul trouble, or allow us to defend high screens well - and the style of play of the Illini didn't generate a ton of contact.
Given that, an "even" distribution of foul calls was always going to favor Illinois - and even if they were whistled 50% more than we were, it was *still* probably going to be in their favor, just based on style of play. I don't think a single moving screen was called all game, though there were probably close to a dozen. I don't think a single hook-and-hold was called all game, though there were 2-3 of them. Pushoffs by guards were hardly ever called - and which benefited Geo, but also their guards getting separation. Plenty of shots to players's heads, hard body contact, illegal clear outs under the basket... none called, either way.
It was clear the refs were going to "let them play" from very early on, and that was not going to favor us in the long run - even though we managed to shoot *way* better than we usually do, including plenty of highlight shots and passes, to keep the game close throughout. (Though there was one stretch where the refs called a series of ticky tack touch fouls on Illinois, which was inconsistent with the rest of the game - possibly to try to even out the foul count in the second half)
Giorgi probably committed 12 fouls in a tightly called game, but only ended up with 3 (and complained about every one). Does he go off for 35 in a game that has a tighter whistle? Of course not, because he'd have only seen about 15 minutes on the floor. This was a lot like the OSU game where Wesson had a career night and a very favorable whistle.
This wasn't "biased" officiating - it was just a style of officiating that didn't favor us at all in this matchup, that had a few particularly bad calls that didn't go our way. For as well as we played, really felt like we just couldn't overcome those headwinds to get ahead of both the Illini and the whistle.
This is also the kind of officiating the women's team would kill for, fwiw.
