Sour Grapes

This will be my first ever 'we got screwed' post not involving Mexico.  I'm upset about a lot of things that happened in yesterday's game.
First of all the officiating.  Anytime the free throw advantage is 28 to 5 in favor of the home team, you can just assume that someone is getting screwed.
Specifically, the thing that killed the Illini was the backcourt illegal screen call on Mike Davis, followed by the blocking call against Bill Cole.

It happened with 3:00 to play and the Illini down 3 with the ball.  The screen that Davis was legal.  He slid into position and was established when Kramer (more on him in a moment) ran into him and dropped like Jason Bourne had sniped him from the nosebleed section.
Then on the ensuing Purdue possesion, Keaton Grant drove the lane and trucked Cole to draw a blocking foul.  In a game where literally every block/charge call went against the Illini, this one was the most egregious and it turned the game.

The most frustrating part of the game not involving officiating or rebounding was Chris Kramer.  The quest is over, we have found the biggest prick in college basketball.
I'll break it down.  First you have the constant flopping.  I already talked about the screen (I don't think Mike Davis could knock my 9-year old brother down on a screen), and there were two instances where DJ Richardson drove the lane and kicked it, but Kramer flopped and drew the charge.

Also, when he blocked DJ's shot on a drive, he gave him the Dikembe finger wave.  Umm Chris, you're a 6'2 white guy who probably gets his shot munched more often then anybody else in the conference, is that something you want to be doing?  Really cool.

The worst part of the Kramer experience was the over-hype and undue praise from Steve Lavin.  It reached new levels when Lavin suggested that Kramer 'could play defensive back in the NFL'.  I would like to counter - HELL NO!!  Are you high Steve?  Just because someone can benchpress a little and fouls a lot, doesn't mean he can play professional football.
It's just my opinion, but if you are't quick enough to take Mike Tisdale off the dribble, then you are not quick enough to cover Reggie Wayne.

If Kramer was good at football, then he would play football, because he is horrible at basketball.

It was an interesting strategy cosmically to ignore Kramer and have Tisdale cover him from inside the free throw line.  I remember in Chester Frazier's sophomore year, Purdue employed the same strategy and ignored Chester and sunk off him below the free throw area.  The strategy proved effective against Chester, and now 3 years later, it worked again against Kramer.  Turnabout is fair play I guess.