The ongoing March Madness series has brought out a series of unproven claims over the last few days. Even before the main games could begin, rumors began to arise that the Selection Committee had favored some teams, like the UNC Tar Heels, that did not deserve to be on the NCAA bracket. Now, over the last few games, the calls have increased against the NCAA officials for allegedly favoring one team over the others. While Dan Hurley did apologize for his outburst after the UConn Huskies’ elimination, the fact that he yelled “I hope they don’t f— you like they f—-d us” to the Baylor players indicated that even coaches were not happy with the referees. If allegations of bias during the recent Florida-Texas State were not enough, Cooper Flagg’s Duke has now propped up some more of them.

The Duke Blue Devils recently defeated the Alabama Crimson Tide to become the 2nd team to qualify for the Final Four of the March Madness series. As the game approached its final minutes, tensions were at an all-time high. Therefore, it did not help when a series of foul calls began to be made on Cooper Flagg’s squad. While Alabama had 18 personal fouls by the end of the game, in comparison to Duke’s 15, the Devils kept receiving them on a continuous basis. At one point, the team had 3 foul calls made against it in less than a minute, with the first 2 occurring right after a 15-second interval.

Under normal circumstances, fans would not have been making too big of a fuss regarding how things went for both teams. However, Duke and Alabama competed in the Elite Eight stage of March Madness. Having already come this far, both teams would not have wanted anything unfair to hurt their chances of making the Final Four. Furthermore, the last few days saw an unprecedented rise in criticism over the calls made by referees in important games.

It all started with the UConn-Florida matchup in the 2nd round of March Madness. Dan Hurley’s team had committed 21 fouls to Florida’s 17. However, they shot 19-of-22 from the line compared to the Gators’ 22-34. Dan Hurley was already upset enough about the loss, and the calls just made him angry. Later, during the Gators’ game against the Maryland Terrapins, the Terrapins had 16 fouls to Florida’s 22. Throughout the game, fans put out tweets to ask Todd Golden to fight for his players by getting into the referees’ faces.

The issue reached even the women’s league, when reports started to emerge of referees allegedly making foul calls only against the LSU Tigers during a game against the NC State Wolfpack. Kim Mulkey’s squad had 18 personal fouls in comparison to NC State Wolfpack’s 14, and the Tigers did not get any fouls called for them during the game’s 2nd quarter.

The presence of a continuous pattern of alleged bias claims against NCAA officials only builds up any frustrations that would have stemmed from the recent Duke-Alabama game. Therefore, fans were not happy with how things went, and they made it known.

Basketball fans criticize officiating during Duke-Alabama matchup

One social media user wrote, “Every time tonight it seems like Duke is about to blow it open, there is a foul calls. On the Maluach broken play dunk, Proctor got killed. It’s now 6 straight fouls on Duke.”

Khaman Maluach performed well during the recent matchup, scoring 14 points on 6-of-7 shooting. However, after Maluach picked up a foul on the offensive rebound attempt, it kicked off a series of misses from both sides. It was interrupted by a layup from Proctor, until Sears finally made a 3-pointer. Duke’s lead was cut down to six, 52-46, after a Foul was called on Kon Knueppel. These interruptions broke the momentum in the game and were not appreciated too much.

One individual wrote, “6 straight fouls called against Duke”. This occurred as 12:07 minutes remained in the 2nd half of the game. Calls were made on Caleb Foster and Tyrese Proctor within a 15-second gap. This was followed by another foul on Caleb Foster and one on Cooper Flagg. Then on Kon Knueppel, before the sequence ended with a call on Sion James. From 12:07 to 6:40, it felt as if the referees had a close eye only on the Duke’s squad.

One social media user wrote, “What’s up with these phantom foul calls on Duke, it was mostly clean the first half but it’s getting bad. It’s like the refs are making sure the lead doesn’t grow lol I know that isn’t really their intention but that is what’s happening”. While only 12 foul calls were made in the 1st half, the number was 21 in the 2nd half. However, only 9 of them were against Duke in the latter half. The foul calls hurt Alabama as much as their rivals. Rather, it hurt the Crimson Tide squad more. After all, they could not even walk away with the win in the end.

One individual wrote “This ref show is fucking atrocious”. The social media handle carried the name of Barstool Blue Devils. Therefore, one can guess which team the commentator looked to defend through their criticism.

The officials should have been careful during the recent game. After all, it wasn’t that long ago when they were accused of alleged favouritism in another game. During the Sweet 16 game against Arizona and Duke, Jaden Bradley was called for a flagrant foul. It happened after he brought Duke’s Kon Knueppel to the floor in the second half. Then, Duke’s Patrick Ngongba II brought down Arizona’s Henri Veesaar in a similar manner. However, the officials ruled Ngongba’s play to be a common foul, not a flagrant foul. Rules analyst Gene Steratore did not agree with this call. He stated, “I’m a little surprised by that fellas, I’m a little surprised by that.”

Duke was whistled for 22 fouls, while Arizona was called for 24 fouls. Out of the total 50 free-throw attempts, 23 were by Arizona, and 27 by Duke. This led to fans calling for the officiating crew to be suspended from the rest of the 2025 NCAA Tournament.

One social media user took an opposite stance to the others. He wrote, “Alabama cant even sneeze near duke without a foul….i guess flagg in tbe final 4 sounds better #MarchMadness”. Well, Cooper Flagg is expected to be the No. 1 Pick in the upcoming NBA draft. Therefore, it would make for a good storyline if he progresses through the March Madness series. Even better if he wins the NCAA championship. However, Flagg did help Duke secure the win, scoring 16 points, 9 rebounds, and 3 assists. Even if the foul calls were disruptive, they affected Duke equally as much as Alabama. In the end, the better team reigned supreme.

Overall, the majority of reactions saw basketball fans united in defense of Duke, with a few exceptions. However, all of them were not happy with the way the officials conducted things. Nevertheless, the Duke Blue Devils are now in the Final Four along with the Florida Gators. Whether the team will next face the No. 1 Auburn or the No. 2 Michigan State is something that remains to be seen.