[26 Year Gap]

I read the column. Many of his pieces are very good. This one is not. I have played in a tournament game in the Bangor Auditorium. The nerves are up a few notches. There are probably more turnovers in tournament games. There are probably lower shooting percentages in tournament games. There are probably more missed FTs and layups in tournament games. And there are probably more fanboys at tournament games.

With respect to officials, the top ones are usually chosen and some make the transition from 2 to 3 easily. You are not as apt to see whistles swallowed in these games. I did my first playoff game this year. It went pretty smoothly for the most part as we had worked as a crew a couple of weeks prior and probably had our best game of the season in the words of the R. One kid got 3 PFs & 2 TFs by midway through the 2nd quarter. We didn't call the game differently, but maybe he played differently.

Check out the age discrimination article that is a link near the bottom of this one.

btw Full disclosure: the author was one of my instructors before the gap in the Officiating class I took.