Quote:
Originally Posted by johnny d
And in Illinois, this means exactly what? Certainly not the best officials the state has to offer. Many of the guys working the state tournament here are doing so as lifetime achievement awards. That is usually why they are 5+ years past their prime, can no longer run, and are 25+ pounds over weight.
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I even think that is a little overstated.
This was a 2A State Final in 2009. That means that most of the teams are from these smaller, rural areas in our state. Most officials in the biggest area of officiating or the most trained part of the state (I know I grew up in Macomb), almost never works games at that level. I know when I lived in Central Illinois, I never had the bigger schools and when I moved to the suburbs, I had to adjust to the talent level that I was seeing at the Sophomore level compared to the varsity basketball I had previously worked.
In this particular game that I clipped, one team played in a conference where almost every school is a 3A-4A school and playing in the playoffs is mostly a cake walk. I will say this is similar to Hales or Seton who have won titles in these smaller classes, but did so playing teams they would never see at any tournament or regular season game during the year. But when the playoffs come they play teams smaller and less talented in the post season. The other team was a small rural town, but had a future NBA player on their roster. I would bet that this was probably the best talented two teams these guys had seen all year. And fast forward to what happened in 2A in 2012 and the fiasco that made national news that occurred that State Final Tournament, again not a single Chicago area official worked in that State Finals at all or even from an area like Peoria or the Quad Cities.
This kind of play we are discussing is common with teams that play above the rim. There are multiple players that can block shots like this and they are not 7 feet tall either. I think this was about experience with those players more than anything. I do not feel it is about their age as much. There are guys that can keep up much better in the 3A-4A State Finals and are not passed their time. Of course the system has guys that have been in the system a long time and might not be where they were 5 or 10 years ago, but that is the case in any system IMO. I would rather have someone wait and be ready for that moment, then get there really early and piss in their pants not having had a game of that magnitude until the State Finals. This situation was just an official anticipating a call without seeing the whole play IMO.
Peace