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I'll chime and and respond by saying that I didn't particularly think that the officials did a great job on that game, but I'll also back up my point that the game appeared extremely tough to officiate given the caliber of players, the stage and the potential for problems. 3 Ts and an intentional which I thought could easily have been a flagrant illustrates this point, as does the really chippy play at the end of the game. There was an elbow on a free throw with 10 seconds left for no reason, even with all the foul calls, it was physical away from the ball in the 4th, so I think the refs had the right idea to call a tight game, but they got so caught up in doing so that they ended up calling a number of marginal plays or plays that didn't exist. Their lack of familiarity with the teams also contributed as it put star players in foul trouble early. My bottom line is that with the way that game went, with MD getting up early and controlling the pace, I don't think any refs could have come out of that looking particularly good given the personalities and styles involved.
I agree with SoCal that it would've been better to have an established crew familiar with each other on this game. I also dispute the notion that just because someone is on a state final game that "they've arrived," rather, it's more like they've gotta prove they belong, and I think that's where these crews can appear like camp crews. Maybe another solution is to take one ref who works a Mitty during the season, one who works Mater-Dei and then a third neutral ref. I will leave that up to the powers that be.
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