Olympic Officials

[Dan_ref]

I saw the last half of the Argentina/Serbia game and most of the USA/PR game. Working this level with a 2 man crew is not easy and it was not my intent going in to "observe" these guys but overall I was underwhelmed by the officiating. For instance, far too many long distance calls (in the US game I saw 2 double whistles when the ball was at or above the free throw line extended, one was on a 3 pt shot). There were times when the T failed to maintain a good angle through the dribbler/defender, once he seemed straightlined from behind as the dribbler was coming up the middle of the court. In the opening minutes the L gave the ball to the US team on an OOB inbounds when it was PR's ball, they had to blow it back just before the easy layup (I didn't see if the clock started or not). Maybe it's FIBA vs NCAA/NF rules but there were a few times when the ball seemd to be inbounded at the wrong spot after a violation. The crew seemed to allow more contact for PR than the USA team, especially in the post & lane, but I'll admit I don't know what the final foul count was. On the other hand I thought the crew had the last second shot right in the Argentina game and in the USA game they were able to manage an obviously upset USA team well through the blowout.

But, as I said, oveall not very impressive at all.