Grey Shirts

[Raymond]

Originally Posted by BktBallRef

They go to what they see, evidently without looking at their partner. Same thing happened in the Carolina-Winthrop game tonight.

Originally Posted by Nevadaref

I don't really have a firm opinion on the wide-panel zebra shirt. I do know that the NCAA modified their rule book to explicitly allow the wearing of it a couple of years ago. So perhaps without a similar change in the NFHS book, this shirt should be considered not to meet the current standards.

On the other hand it is hard to argue that it is not a black and white striped shirt! So my thoughts on the actual wearing of it are:

1. It should only be worn if the ENTIRE crew is wearing it. The officials are a team and their uniform needs to be the same. I have seen a couple of HS games in which only one official on the court wore this shirt and it did make him stand out.

2. The thick black stripe IS noticeable. It stands out every time an official raises his arm for a foul or violation. If that side of the official's body is facing the table, the coaches especially take notice of the different look. This was particularly true in the game that I mentioned in #1. So much so that one coach became upset because he felt that whenever "the official with the stripe" made a call it went against his team. He became fixated on the guy with the stripe and it eventually led to his removal.

I immediately noticed that Bernard Clinton was wearing a "side-panel" shirt while Lopes and Kitts weren't. Did the "side panel" play any factor into the calling of the "blarge"? I didn't watch the game past the the first TV time-out so I didn't personally see the "blarge". I do notice in the box score that Winthrop only shot 1 free throw. I wonder if the fact that they attempted 38 3-pointers had anything to do with that or will some Winthrop fanboy come on this site complaining the UNC was getting all the calls?