NCAA Men's Tournament Officials (2018)

Guys, let's not act like the racial composition of the crew isn't a consideration. Based on the "trend" Matt S. referenced earlier it absolutely is. It isn't wrong of me to point that out.

[Matt S.]

I couldn't care less if they had crews where all 3 officials were black, white, Asian, Latino, whatever. I just find it interesting that every single crew, save one, during regional play had 2 white officials and one black official.

[crosscountry55]

Originally Posted by Matt S.

I couldn't care less if they had crews where all 3 officials were black, white, Asian, Latino, whatever. I just find it interesting that every single crew, save one, during regional play had 2 white officials and one black official.

I’m not a professional mathematician. But I dabble in numbers and I can say with a fair amount of confidence that the odds of 11 of 12 crews having this consistently precise racial distribution absolutely did not happen by coincidence.

What this means in the grand scheme of things? I find myself not caring that much.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by AremRed

Guys, let's not act like the racial composition of the crew isn't a consideration. Based on the "trend" Matt S. referenced earlier it absolutely is. It isn't wrong of me to point that out.

I believe it is a factor. It is at the high school level. But what cracks me up is that somehow the Black officials have to justify their position and never the white officials, who again are not representative of the players that are mostly on the floor.

Peace

John Higgins has worked the past 5 Final Fours. That streak will likely end this year.

Here's the 10 I predict:

Michael Stephens
Mike Eades
Tony Padilla
Jeff Anderson
Doug Sirmons
Verne Harris
Ron Groover
Terry Oglesby
Jeff Clark
Roger Ayers

On the bubble:
Terry Wymer
Keith Kimble
Mike Roberts
Bo Boroski

[michblue]

Well, I am going throw this out there early....

Final Four Guesses:

Mike Eades (Semi)
Terry Ogelsby (Semi)
Jeff Anderson (Championship)
Doug Sirmons (Championship)
Keith Kimble (Semi)
Mike Stephens (Semi)
Verne Harris (Semi)
Randy McCall (Championship)
Bert Smith (stand by)
Lamont Simpson (Semi)

But also in the mix, Ayers, Clougherty, Gaffney

[Rich]

Originally Posted by JRutledge

I believe it is a factor. It is at the high school level. But what cracks me up is that somehow the Black officials have to justify their position and never the white officials, who again are not representative of the players that are mostly on the floor.

Peace

I have sent all Black officials to games where they might have been the only ones in the building. I've sent 3 women to work a boys HS game. Then I had 3 men work the girls game that followed.

I simply don't care. Nobody I work for (administrators of the 24 schools) or that coaches in my conference would ever say anything. They have more important things to worry about.

My criteria is this -- can you get plays right and can you deal with people?

I'm never going to get rid of people cause they are too white, too black, female, run funny, too short, too tall, too heavy, too thin.....provided they get their plays right. And I don't make specific assignments on those criteria, either.

I've only assigned 5 seasons now, though, maybe 1700 games. I might change my mind, but probably won't.

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by Rich

I have sent all Black officials to games where they might have been the only ones in the building. I've sent 3 women to work a boys HS game. Then I had 3 men work the girls game that followed.

I simply don't care. Nobody I work for (administrators of the 24 schools) or that coaches in my conference would ever say anything. They have more important things to worry about.

My criteria is this -- can you get plays right and can you deal with people?

I'm never going to get rid of people cause they are too white, too black, female, run funny, too short, too tall, too heavy, too thin.....provided they get their plays right. And I don't make specific assignments on those criteria, either.

I've only assigned 5 seasons now, though, maybe 1700 games. I might change my mind, but probably won't.

I'm going to take a guess that Wisconsin is a little different demographically than Illinois. Heck even certain parts of Indiana are very diverse.

Peace

[Rich]

Originally Posted by JRutledge

I'm going to take a guess that Wisconsin is a little different demographically than Illinois. Heck even certain parts of Indiana are very diverse.



Peace

Depends on the area.

Having experienced this kind of race-based assigning once (an assigner in Illinois back when we did 2 dates a year there insisted we have a black wing to work with the "black team") I think this nonsense is overblown. That guy caused more trouble than anyone on the crew, mainly cause he was a terrible official.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by AremRed

Guys, let's not act like the racial composition of the crew isn't a consideration.

I would hope that it isn't on either a college, or high school, level, but from posts on this Forum, and from comments from my Connecticut officiating colleagues, both high school officials, and college officials, that may not be the case.

Looking through my Pollyanna, rose colored glasses, I would hope that assignments would only be based on the competency of the officials, not their race, or gender.

I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. (Martin Luther King, Jr.)

We're not there yet, but we can hope.

[SC Official]

Race plays a factor in forming crews for many assigners (Rich?). Not saying it’s right or wrong, but to pretend it doesn’t happen is nonsense.

If a game has one white and one black coach, many assigners will make sure the crew makeup is 2:1. The idea being that it fends off one of the coaches playing the race card if he feels wronged by something. Of course, hopefully all officials are still competent.

As long as racism still exists (it does) and charges of racism get brought up over the results of basketball games (it happens), it’s unlikely that race will ever not be a factor when forming crews for assigners that care about it.