BOSTON – Dion Waiters said he wouldn’t say it.

‘I’m not going to sit here and say,’ the sullen sophomore shooting guard began as he stood in front of his locker.

And then he changed his mind and said it anyway.

‘But I feel as though a lot of calls went the other way. Plain and simple. It felt like we were playing 5-on-8.’

In typical Dion Waiters fashion, he brazenly shared his opinion about the officiating of Saturday night’s 77-70 loss to Ohio State. He was blunt in saying that it felt like Syracuse had to battle both the Buckeyes and the referees for a chance to go to the Final Four.

Though his teammates wouldn’t join him in speaking out as brashly against the officiating crew, I will. And I have no problem doing it.

The trio of John Higgins, Michael Nance and Thomas O’Neill made a mockery of Saturday’s Elite Eight matchup in both directions, obliterating any semblance of tempo and imparting their influence on a game that should have belonged to the players. For viewers, the thrill of watching basketball was exhausted.

‘The refs are going to the Final Four,’ Juli Boeheim, wife of SU head coach Jim Boeheim, said audibly among a group in the underbelly of TD Garden.

You’d think that was the case after the officials took center stage Saturday.

Ohio State was the best team on the floor – that much is clear. It shot better and executed better. Even Boeheim said the Buckeyes deserved the win. Then came Syracuse, runners-up in the East Region. And then came the officials, the worst of the three groups to set foot on the parquet floor.

It’s important to realize the referees didn’t decide this game or cost Syracuse the game. Not by a long shot.

A valiant comeback in the game’s final 10 minutes left SU with a chance to win. The Orange cut the lead to one with 6:52 remaining, but it gave up a quick 7-1 spurt to the Buckeyes to fall behind for good.

‘I think we had a chance to win the game no matter what, with the refs or without them giving us any calls,’ SU guard Scoop Jardine said.

In fairness, the referees did grant Syracuse a few of the questionable calls Saturday night. One official blew an inadvertent whistle after what looked like a Brandon Triche travel, only to say it never happened. SU was awarded the ball out of bounds, but Triche turned to reporters and said he got away with one.

Later, OSU guard Aaron Craft picked up his fourth foul on a questionable bump of Triche in the lane. It brought Buckeyes assistant coach Jeff Boals up off the bench in protest. And All-American center Jared Sullinger was hit with a pair of fouls within the first seven minutes of the game.

But to deny that the numerous bad calls were evenly split wouldn’t be accurate. It certainly seemed as if Syracuse came up on the short end of the stick more often than Ohio State.

The numbers can back that up:

Syracuse was called for 29 personal fouls Saturday, more than the number of made field goals and total rebounds for the Orange.

Ohio State shot 42 total free throws, 17 more than Syracuse.

Five SU players finished with four or more fouls compared to just one for the Buckeyes.

When asked about the officiating after the game, Boeheim declined to comment.

But in doing so, he certainly made his opinion clear. Had he thought the officiating was fair, he would have said as much.

‘That helped a lot,’ OSU forward Deshaun Thomas said of the free-throw advantage. ‘Getting to the free-throw line (that often) and to hit 31 of them, it was something special.’

Boeheim became so upset that he received a technical foul after a Triche layup that was waived off when Higgins called a charge.

O’Neill handed him the technical for wandering out of the coaching box one too many times and gesturing about a call, according to Higgins, the crew chief, after the game.

It’s a reason that seems suspect given the importance of Saturday’s game and the frequency with which college coaches venture beyond the white line that never seems to restrict them.

Aside from Waiters, freshman forward Rakeem Christmas came closest to expressing direct dissatisfaction with the officiating crew.

‘It’s whatever,’ he said of the referees. ‘I don’t know. We played hard.’

Both Syracuse and Ohio State played hard Saturday. The only problem was the referees played harder.

Michael Cohen is a staff writer for The Daily Orange, where his column appears occasionally. He can be reached at mjcohe02@syr.edu or on Twitter at @Michael_Cohen13.

Published on March 24, 2012 at 12:00 pm

Contact Michael: mjcohe02@syr.edu | @Michael_Cohen13