[crosscountry55]

Ok, I'll be objective here. There's a little fanboy in the article, but there's some fair points as well. I still disagree on the whole:

1. If this were only a supply and demand of officials issue, he'd have a point. As what's happening in Iowa, necessity is the mother of (dis)invention. But as Rich has said, while the officiating population in WI is struggling, it has not yet reached anything close to critical mass.

2. So the guy is essentially calling for more consistency. Ok, got it. He might get more consistency with 2p crews, but at the expense of quality. As I am reluctantly back to 2p in Rhode Island this year, I see the cost in terms of quality every night. The players and the officials are better than they were the last time I was here in 2009. That's a credit to the development of basketball in RI; bully for them. But the game is dangerously handsy and physical; sadly freedom of movement here is like it was everywhere else five years ago. I'm certain the lack of coverage that a third set of eyes could provide directly encourages this (I know for certain that there is BS I miss in 2p that I'd call in a heartbeat as a 3rd official off-ball). So 3p crews...consistency or not...still cleans up the game so as to make it the more free-flowing sport that the fans and players deserve. If you want football, go watch a football game.

3. If you cut the experience dividend by 50% every night, how are you going to grow officials who are already predisposed to leaving the avocation early due to lack of upward mobility, sportsmanship headaches, and poor compensation? You may not like the consistency every night, but the long-term alternative for HS level officiating is dire.

4. The op-ed author talks about WI's contracting system. That might cause some of the cut-throat competition for good officials that he presumes, but as Rich as said before, this is probably largely overstated. Of more import, I'd argue, is that it makes it difficult for assigners to pull and plug officials as needed for the big games. The author of the op-ed probably wouldn't be as concerned about the games he is referring to if those games were blowouts. I think an important role of any assignor is to be able to put the best officials on the best games, and that can't be determined 2-3 years out when the players are still in middle school.

5. Lastly, in line with #4, WI needs to get out of the habit of employing crews vice individuals. Crews are fun (admittedly I developed some closer friendships over the last two seasons than I otherwise would have in WI), but the cost is sometimes the entrenchment of bad habits and mechanics, including lack of hustle. See that same crew two or three times in a season, and I could understand why the author might get frustrated and "blame the system." Working with different people every night tends to keep you fresh, from pre-game to signals to mechanics to hustle and everything in between.

There are things that can be done in WI (see above) to enhance the basketball officiating capacity. The simple solution of reverting to 2p crews is decidedly not one of them.

Rich....you can quote me if you decide to send a letter to the editor of the Gazette. =)