[SMEngmann]

I think that the above posts are very relevant to what we've seen so far this year at the tournament. Here we have directive, reportedly from on high encouraging officials, strongly, to make safe calls. Of course, many of the calls that have been criticized so far in the tournament have been calls that can be deemed as "safe." The two main examples are the Oden intentional foul and the hanging on the rim in the Tennessee-Virginia game. In my opinion, both of those calls were incorrect, of course I am not nearly at the NCAA tournament level.

I've heard Dave Libbey speak, and one of the core things that he says is that you can call the exact same play different ways and be right both times. Libbey is referring to a play that we might want early in the game as a tempo setter, but not to call with the game on the line because it didn't have a direct impact on the play. I think this concept has been taken too far in these two cases. If we're not talking the last 30 seconds of a tight elimination game, but in the first half, in my opinion these are no brainer calls. The problem is that the penalty for the official for being wrong calling the play correctly would be much more severe than the penalty for being wrong with a "no call" or going with the lesser foul.

I think as officials we need to strive for calling the obvious at all times during the game, and I think these calls in specific have hurt our profession all the way through. As these plays become more prevalent in high profile games, the mentality matriculates down to the lower levels. In my high school playoff game, a player or coach may come in with the attitude that because the game's close, he will be granted leeway to blatantly and obviously violate the rules of the game and have the expectation that it won't be called because of the score. Where does it end? I don't think anyone can deny that the "superstar mentality" has made its way down to the top high school programs, one only needs to look at the OJ Mayo mess to see that.

I think we as officials need to understand the concept of impact of fouls and fouls on specific players and the impact of different types of fouls on our games, but we can't lose sight of the need to always call obvious plays no matter what point in the game. We need to make sure fouls are there and obvious when we call them, but we can't lose sight of calling obvious plays simply because of the way that call might impact the game. I'm not saying go out and look for ticky tack stuff to call at the end of games, but just to have plays that the guy in the nosebleeds can call. Not having these obvious plays, be it in the NBA Finals, the NCAA Tourney, the high school playoffs, a regular varsity game or even a JV game not only hurts all officials, at all levels, but it also undermines the integrity of the game.