Wisconsin Badgers fans rip Big Ten officials after another technical foul call

Washington v Wisconsin
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The Wisconsin Badgers advanced to the Big Ten tournament championship game Saturday with a massive 77-74 win over top-seeded Michigan State. It was another spectacular game from John Tonje, who led the Badgers with 32 points. However, one of the stories in the first half of the game were the Big Ten officials.

It is now three straight games with one technical foul called against the Wisconsin Badgers. Against Northwestern, Steven Crowl received a tech after some NSFW language after a big block on Ty Berry. At the beginning of the second half against UCLA, Nolan Winter received a questionable dead-ball contact technical foul. 

Badger fans who watched Saturday’s game against Michigan State might have been the softest one yet.

John Blackwell receives Wisconsin’s third technical foul of the tournament

 With under two minutes left in the first half, Blackwell drove to the rim and collided with a sliding Jeremy Fears Jr., who was correctly called for a blocking foul. Blackwell turned and lightly tossed the ball to the sideline, but it inadvertently hit Fears Jr., who objected to it. This led to all three officials going to a monitor review, which took an egregious amount of time, and decided to give a deadball technical foul to Blackwell. 

Even some prominent former Badger basketball players posted on X about the technical foul:

Now, had the Badgers lost this game, the officials, Brian Dorsey, Keith Kimble, and Randy Richardson, would not be responsible. The Badgers held the lead throughout most of the second half. Wisconsin had plenty of chances to put the game away, but Michigan State is too talented of a team to roll over. All in all, it was a tremendous game, and a major win for the Badgers' chances of landing the three-seed in the Milwaukee region.

That said, it's aggravating that this crew took such a long look at the replay monitor and decided to issue a technical foul on an action that, to be honest, was something of nothing. It was a call that did not need to be made, and thankfully, did not cost the Wisconsin Badgers.

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