Thoughts on pressure officials are under.
 

I am a newbie ref who just completed my second year so few things I would like to hear your thoughts on over next few days. I will start with first:

1. As a former D1 athlete (baseball), I can say with enough experience that I and most other athletes performed best when expectations came from the coach but pressure to perform came from teammates competing for my/same position. When expectations from the coach shifted to pressure from the coach through micromanaging/constant berating/ quick hooks, players began to tighten up and become fearful to make mistakes. Has the evaluation process shifted that way for officials with the evaluators being our "coaches"? What has made me ask is the overwhelming number of replies in the few forums/groups I have joined where comments are "THIS CREW WON'T ADVANCE TO THE NEXT ROUND" based on a single call. It seems almost like guys take pleasure in this. I don't see this as being good overall.

Your assessment is valid. In some cases in jealousy and in some its speculation. Often times it's trying to figure out the criteria that these selections happen. Many times we are probably all wrong because we aren't part of the decision making committee.

Don't kid yourself. A lot of officiating is politics and cutthroat. I don't know about NCAA basketball but college softball is dog eat dog. Guys throw partners under the bus a lot to try to get better games. It's kind of sad really.

A single judgement call in a game should NOT be a determining factor if a crew advances to the next round. But if the entire crew mis-applies adjudication of a procedure (using replay incorrectly, allowing substitutes to enter the game incorrectly, correctable error situations), then the crew (even the alternate) should be held accountable for their mistake. At this level of the NCAA tournament, procedure wise, everything should be conducted correctly. All things being equal, the mis-application or adjudication of a rule/procedure is just cause for a crew not to move on when other crews have their games go on without errors.

I think at least at the level of the NCAA tourney you need to accept the win and advance mentality applies to the officials too. Doesn't mean next year someone who got out early can't keep going, doesn't mean because you've been to a final four the year before you can't have a bad day and get sent packing.

Reality is that every 2 rounds you need 1/4 the number of officials you started with. Not everyone can move on . . .

Just like you favourite team they might deserve it but didn't produce on the day .

This is probably how it SHOULD be. The reality is something else. Not speaking from personal experience, but from good friends who have been there (elite 8, FF, NC). It happens.

Generally speaking and just of my opinion.....

For HS sports, there is a demand for officials. So if official A makes a crucial mistake on Tuesday night, it won't matter and official A will be working Friday night. Local politics can definitely play a role but climbing the latter can be somewhat objective.

For college (basketball), it is the opposite where there is no demand but rather a large pool of officials. I'd say it is 80% who you know, 10% appearance/athleticism, 5% personality, and 5% rules knowledge. Avoid mistakes because there is a long line of officials behind you ready to work.

Favorite Officiating Joke
 

That can really apply to anything else I guess:

Q - How many referees does it take to screw in a light bulb?

A - Five. One to do it and four others to stand around saying "I could've done that better."

Different levels
 

I officiate high school & D-3 women's bball. I was just honored to work a HS state tournament, and I've been assigned college conference tournament games in the past.

In my experience, the two sports are entirely different with respect to expectations and opportunities for advancement. Are there politics at all levels, you bet. But the things that college evaluators are looking for are quite different that high school. It also depends on the state that you're in...some states support officials better than others (I've worked in 7 different states, so I have a little experience in this regard).

If there are 1,000 NCAA D-1 men's officials, and only 10% work the tournament, and all of those games are nationally televised, than yes, there's gonna be pressure to be perfect. But Mr. Collins isn't going to expect perfection, and neither is any other decision-maker that has a true understanding of our craft.

If the NCAA directive is to 'survive and advance,' then that's what these officials are going to strive to do. But in reality, the best officials, and those advancing the furthest, are the best game managers. If you can handle coaches and manage difficult situations, you will advance in both level and depth of the season/postseason.

As one of my first mentors told me, "95% of all officials can handle 95% of all situations. It's the 5% that makes the difference."

At this point in the season, they have to pair down the officials each round: there just aren't enough slots. Now you're differentiating between 30-40 officials who could all, in reality, handle a FF matchup.

A single missed call might seem like a harsh way to differentiate, but many of these teams are getting bounced due to a single missed free throw or bad pass.

I do not think a single call alone has that much power, but I do believe if you mess up a rule, that will highlight what happens when they are considering other officials that did not make those mistakes. I am sure there are other things because used as an evaluation as well, but that is just the thing that might highlight what another crew did right.

I know that the official that made the call in the Regional Final in the Syracuse-Gonzaga game where the Trail called the out of bounds violation on end line (in front of the lead) did not advance last year. That was a pretty high profile situation. Maybe there were other issues in that game (and their were) but it probably made them look at the game in other ways and determine that official should not have advanced.

Peace

Yet an official advanced out of this game this year.
https://forum.officiating.com/basket...correctly.html

Perhaps the NCAA did not care because it was a media non-story?

Just look at the Gonzaga-West Virginia game from last night....is anyone talking about how the officials used replay incorrectly? Nope.

I had an excellent discussion after that game with an officiating friend. We debated whether the NCAA cared more about following the rules and proper monitor procedure or actually getting the call correct based upon what happened on the court. We concluded that ultimately the NCAA wants the correct decision made on the play. So I currently believe that if the officials fail to follow the rules or the monitor procedure, but actually get the call right that the NCAA (JD Collins) will support the decision.
It's a matter of not having to take heat for a glaring mistake during the high profile event.

Anyone agree or disagree with me?

One of the best Navy ship captains I ever worked for, during his second tour in Command, happened to have a bad day where his ship dragged anchor and he ran softly aground. Relatively minor damage, but a week later he was shown the door and his career effectively ended. Would have probably been a 3- or 4-star Admiral. Instead, he got 0.

A minute of complacency ruined 24 years of excellence.

If you're asking me, the tournament officials have it easy in comparison. At least they can try again next year.

Accountability....is a powerful and humbling thing.