[JAdams]

I attended the four first-round games in Dayton Friday, and saw the two Sunday follow-up games on TV. Overall the officiating was good, but a couple of times the on-floor officials sunk to junior high school level.

In one case, the players lined up for what should have been a one-and-one. The shooter missed, and only one defensive player went up for the rebound... everyone else just stood there like they were expecting two shots. The officials immediately hit their whistles, whereupon the rebounder turned toward one of them, obviously asking why. All three officials went to the table to sort things out. Finally they decided that it really should have been a one-and-one, and gave the ball to the rebounding team. Major embarrasment.

The second snafu resulted from an intentional foul on a shot that went in. The guys properly awarded the basket, but gave the shooter only one free throw (should be two regardless whether the ball went in or not). Thirty seconds of clock later, upon the second subsequent whistle, they realized their goof, but were powerless to award the second free throw.

You'd think that, with all the years of experience on the floor in each instance, mistakes like these wouldn't happen. I'm not saying that I'll never make these types of mistakes in the future. But if I do, I would expect my supervisor to take some hide off my butt.