I'm Impressed with The Officiating

[bsilliman]

I've seen most of all the games and I have been impressed with the quality of officiating in every game.

It has been consistent at both ends and for the most part the players have adjusted to the type of fouls being called.

As stated in an earlier post about the G-Town/Ark game, Ted Hillary handled that situation exactly by the book. He went directly to the G-Town coach and explained what he was going to do and then made his decision.

Hopefully all of the games continue to go smoothly and no team loses because of an incorrect call. There will always be questionable calls, but incorrect ones really hurt.

[jweiler]

Went to the regional semi finals UP here the last two nights and came home almost embarrassed to be an official. While some of the guys were pretty good, there were a couple that just stank: positioning, mechanics and judgement. Train wrecks were not called, while air fouls were. Travelling was called a number of times, apparently based on fan reaction, or something, because it sure didn't appear to be travelling from my position. The principle of verticallity apparently does not allways apply, nor does having initial guarding position mean anything unless one doesn't move his feet.

Officials are assigned based on ratings, or at least are supposed to be, which either means the assigning committee doesn't pay attention to ratings, or the coaches doing the ratings don't have a clue. Maybe, the ssigning committe just assings names they are familiar with, I just don't know.

All we can do, I guess, is keep on trying to bring and train officials into the game with a basis in understanding the rules and hope that somoe of these guys eventually retire

[Tim Roden]

The assigning commitee takes officials based on conference assignors recommendation. During the tournament, each official is watched on videotap and reviewed. Just like the NFL. The sweet 16 and the final 4 will be based on those reviews. The assinment committee members also sit on press row and listen to how each coach is handled. I know of one final four assignment that came based on what was heard on the sideline.

[BktBallRef]

Carolina turned the ball over entirely too much and Penn State knocked down some big shots. But one of the officials seem to be out of sync the entire game. I don't know his name but he was black, in his forties maybe and had quite a following (a big behind). I have never seen him before.

He called an illegal screen on Peppers from lead that was in the trail's primary. It appeared to be a very good screen, but the screener was huge and the defender very small. One of those collisions that looks bad.

He called a block on a PSU player that appeared to be a charge on Peppers. he was behind the play chasing it.

Carolina has a 5 on 4 and is running a fast break. He stops the game because a PSU player got poked in the eye at the other end of the floor. No blkod and no danger of further injury and he stops the play. Doherty went nuts!

He also made several other calls that disrupted the flow of the game. His partners, by contrast, were almost invisible.

Just an observation.

[David Clausi]

About that whistle for the injured player during the UNC / Penn St. game ...

Q: at what point does the official blow the play dead when there is an injured player on the other side of the court?

My understanding was that as soon as the fast break was over and the ball pulled back, then the play would be blown dead ie. give the offensive team an opportunity to get a shot, but if they pull back, then blow the play dead.

It would not be fair to continue in a 5 on 4 situation which allows the offensive team to run a set offence.

It seemed that the official blew the play down when the ball was being moved away from the basket and the fast break threat (ie. not a set offense) was over.

I took a look in the Fed rule book for some direction on this topic, but could not find anything - anyone else find a reference to this situation?

I know the commentator (and the UNC coach, Doherty) were all over this, but it did seem like the fast break was off.

Comments?

Dave

[JRutledge]

5-8-2d note

If what you say happen David, the officials did exactly what the rule is at least in the NF code. I do not believe that it is much different at the NCAA level, but I am not sure.

[bob jenkins]

Originally posted by JRutledge
5-8-2d note

If what you say happen David, the officials did exactly what the rule is at least in the NF code. I do not believe that it is much different at the NCAA level, but I am not sure.

NCAA 5-9-8 Same rule.

[BktBallRef]

Originally posted by bob jenkins

NCAA 5-9-8 Same rule.

This would have been a secondary break. The player drove the lane, made a pass and kicked it out for a three. The whistle blew just prior to the shot being released.

You can always argue the point of the rule. I do quite often. But the official may a poor choice in blowing the whistle at that point.

[JAdams]

I attended the four first-round games in Dayton Friday, and saw the two Sunday follow-up games on TV. Overall the officiating was good, but a couple of times the on-floor officials sunk to junior high school level.

In one case, the players lined up for what should have been a one-and-one. The shooter missed, and only one defensive player went up for the rebound... everyone else just stood there like they were expecting two shots. The officials immediately hit their whistles, whereupon the rebounder turned toward one of them, obviously asking why. All three officials went to the table to sort things out. Finally they decided that it really should have been a one-and-one, and gave the ball to the rebounding team. Major embarrasment.

The second snafu resulted from an intentional foul on a shot that went in. The guys properly awarded the basket, but gave the shooter only one free throw (should be two regardless whether the ball went in or not). Thirty seconds of clock later, upon the second subsequent whistle, they realized their goof, but were powerless to award the second free throw.

You'd think that, with all the years of experience on the floor in each instance, mistakes like these wouldn't happen. I'm not saying that I'll never make these types of mistakes in the future. But if I do, I would expect my supervisor to take some hide off my butt.

[PAULK1]

While the calls may have been embarrassing or even
non correctable atleast the crews came to gether and got the
decision right in the end which is about all we can ask. And it does go to show that it can happen at any level and we must be prepared to deal with it when it happens.