[rainmaker]

Originally posted by Joel Poli
Still, the notion that the officials shouldn't have decided the game is so wrong as to be frightful. They decided this one just as surely by making the call as they would have if they hadn't.

Why this is such a difficult concept to grasp, even among players, coaches and analysts, is one of the great mysteries of the sport.


And you can extend this truth of the game to the foul troubles the men's teams faced Sunday in the Atlanta and St. Louis regionals as well.

Officials changed all those games, because they change every game. With everything they call, everything they don't. The technical fouls they bestow, and the ones they overlook. The banging under the boards, the zealously called handchecks at 35 feet. All of it.

They are not supposed to be out of the way. They are part of it, in it up to their windpipes in fact, because if they're not, people get hurt, chaos reigns and the sport is ruined.

That's why good officials are hard to come by, the same way that good players are. It's why you tend to see the same guys working the biggest games year after year.

I love this part. Think I'm going to memorize it. Except he should have said, "the same guys AND GALS working the biggest games year after year." I mean wasn't there at least one gal working that game?