Quote:
Originally Posted by deecee
Even though I prefer a third official there is very little reason why 2 officials cannot call a majority of games. Yes, some calls get missed, but what's the guarantee that the third official will catch these. I would also never tell a coach that we are working hard but would love a third official to help us out. The coaches many times act like the third official anyway.
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I've made comments along these lines when umpiring baseball games as a single umpire, particularly when coaches argue a tag on the backside of the bag or something that is just literally impossible to be 100% on when you're by yourself. However, something doesn't feel right about saying it during basketball. Maybe because as you stated here, many games are officiated with 2 referees, it wasn't long ago 2 was the norm on varsity games, it's happened just this year in a division one game due to injury, and even the NBA didn't use 3 until 1988 (yes I had to google the year but I knew it was relativley recent). As much as we know things are missed with one less referee it isn't something I like to openly admit.