SEC may discipline referee - Ala.-Ga. game
 

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Athens — SEC coordinator of officials Gerald Boudreaux said the league could take action against referee Tom Lopes for his performance in last Saturday's Alabama-Georgia game. But if it does, nobody else will know about it.

"There will be the normal review process and it will conclude when I look at the clips [Georgia coach] Dennis [Felton] sent," Boudreaux told the Journal-Constitution on Tuesday. "We have options within our review process. But if there is any follow-up, we're not going to release anything about it. There will be no official statement coming out of this office."

Boudreaux said officials can be reprimanded or suspended and that there's an end-of-the-year review in which the league could choose not to renew its contract with an individual referee. There is also the option of reassignment but Boudreaux said that a published report that Lopes had been taken off Georgia games was "not accurate."

"The schedule is made at the beginning of the year and it has not changed," Boudreaux said.

Boudreaux said he has talked extensively with Felton about last Saturday's game, won by Alabama 78-76 on a buzzer-beater by Ronald Steele. He said he has reviewed videotape of the game but had not yet received the DVD which Felton sent, documenting 23 alleged bad calls that went against Georgia.

Boudreaux admitted "there were some plays missed" by the crew officiating the Alabama-Georgia game but that happens sometimes "because of the talent and athleticism of the players."

"As long as a human element is involved there will be mistakes but we want to keep them to a minimum," said Boudreaux, who took over as coordinator this season after 20 years as an on-court referee. "But as far as accountability and recourse, it's all in place."

Great response in my opinion, much better than what Big Sky Women's coordinator is doing.

Agree, that's a professional response.

Is Gerald Boudreaux still a currently working official?

If so, I find it odd that he would also be the SEC coordinator of officials.

I'm pretty sure he gave up his floor work to take over Mr. Guthrie's position.

Yes, he gave up his on-floor career. That is part of the job. It was in Referee Magazine about a month or two ago.

Peace

While that makes sense to me, I have to say that it is a shame that this had to happen. I thought that he was one of the best in the NCAA game. I always enjoyed watching him work. However, I believe that he must be a quality supervisor now and that is why the SEC wanted him.

It makes a ton of sense for him. He accomplished just about everything a college official can accomplish and an opportunity came along to take over one of the biggest conferences in the country. He can last a lot longer as the assigner. I don't see how he could say no.

Thank you, Mr. Boudreaux, for holding officials accountable without feeling the need to embarass them.

Let me ask a difficult question.

In front of you is the media - Sportscenter, the internet, etc.
To the left of you is college conferences where the coaches make big money and their jobs depend on winning games.
To the right of you is a part time official who makes between 1-2 thousand a game and is an independant contractor.
Behind you is your family that depends on you to bring home the bacon.

So they guy/gal on your right makes a mistake, which they should not make, and the people in front of you advertise it. The guy/gal on your left is talking directly to your boss because they just got hosed and their job could be in jeopardy. You have your family behind you who depends on you to keep the electricity on. When the hammer falls, which it must because the guy/gal on the right is obviously wrong, do you tell the people in front of you and the guy/gal on the left of you? Or do you say it will be kept in house, but the guys in front of you show highlights of the guy on the right of you officiating games like nothing has happened and the guy/gal on the left of you sees it to? You must also keep in mind, this is a million (at least) dollar business.

I think it is a slippery slope and obviously many D1 conferences (in multiple sports), the NFL and the NBA do not mind coming out and saying what the punishment will be. When a coach gets fired, when a player gets a technical in a game or when a university scandal occurs, it is all right there in the open. Is it so wrong to be open about the punishment handed down to an official?

Just playing devil's advocate.

I can't keep track of who's on my right, left, etc. So I'll just say this:

Yes.

Keep in mind I understand both sides of this debate. I just wanted to see what the answers would be.

Does keeping the punishment in house mean the coaches don't know either or just the media doesn't know?

Even though it was under a different regime, I would say the SEC has taken a beating as far as credibility goes over the last two years or so.

As far as the game itself goes, I didn't see it, but according to the ESPN article, the big controversial call was a shot clock violation that Lopes called with 17 seconds left in the game. The ball hit the rim, but it was so close that they had to go to the monitor to confirm. The AP procedure gave the ball back to Alabama and they won at the buzzer (on what may or may not have been a travel before the game winning shot). I may have a problem w/ the SEC disciplining an official for something that they had to go to the monitor to confirm, or what may or may not have been a travel that can only be confirmed by the SEC reviewing a DVD or videotape in super-slow motion 5 days after the game because a coach b!tched. Just my .02. http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/recap?gameId=270200333

He!! yea it is... anything like that should be in-house, and nobody, and i mean NOBODY should know about it other than the reprimanded official and the person/board deciding his punishment. It goes back to the thread where we were talking about throwing fellow officials underneath the bus. You don't do it, no matter what. If you do, and you let the whole nation know he screwed up, then EVERY game, and i mean EVERY game, coaches and players are going to question his calls, and be continually on his @$$ because of it. It would essentially be forcing this guy to quit officiating.

We're talking about a guy, Tom Lopes, who has been one of the best in the business for many years. He's worked multiple Final Fours and is one of that small, elite group who you tend to see working the big games. His record speaks for itself.

That being said...If he screwed by misapplying a rule that is a major no no and I would have no problem with a simple statement from the SEC saying that he misapplied rule x.x.x and he and his crew will receive a (x) game suspension. But in seems in this case we're talking about judgement calls that need to be made at a split second. Obviously if an official misses too many of these type calls he/she will lose assignments to officials who can make the calls, but these mistakes should not be publicized.

While it may be true that coaches may be more willing to question his calls, a missed shot clock call is not going to force Mr. Lopes to quit officiating. JMO.

i agree -- how can you punish someone who has a split second to make a JUDGEMENT call -- and calls nonetheless that need to be reviewed in super slow mo and still will have some peoplw arguing both sides.

another case of a coach not willing to accept reality -- humas will make errors -- the less time we have to take in information and reasonably evaluate it the more chance for error -- in our industry our chance for error is very high as everything is done split second with lots of information coming in. We all know that the shot clock violation sometimes can be the MOST difficult to call depending on angles and action on the court. How can we SEE a GRAZE. very tough to be reprimanded for close call/non calls based on judgement.

We are not talking about high school basketball, there is a lot of money involved and as far as I know there is no such thing as a board to decide this.
It is sort of naive to think this will ruin someone's career. It just doesn't happen that way so you should let that one go.

I did see the game so I have to throw this out for clarification. I do not know NCAA rules, and most times I work HS games I am told I don't know NFHS rules either, but that's another story. What I saw happen was the shot was taken and, as reported, there was a question as to whether the ball hit the rim or not. From the angles of the replays on the TV broadcast (which may be different from what the officials see) I could not tell. Anyway, what happened after the shot is that a GEORGIA player grabbed for the rebound, bobbled the ball, and it went OOB. So, I am confused as to why ESPN reported that it was a alternating possession situation. Isn't a shot clock violation a turn over to the other team? If so, then it would be an Alabama ball. If they did not call the shot clock violation and judged that the ball hit the rim, then it would have been clearly OOB on Georgia and, thus, an Alabama ball. In either case I think AL would have retained the ball and still won the game. Am I missing something here? Also, Georgia blew a prety big lead in the game and, IMO, it shoudl never have come down to that last 20 seconds or so.

Sure are. You're missing the fact that Lopes blew his whistle <b>before</b> the Georgia player got the rebound. He blew it while the missed shot was still in the air iow. It was an inadvertant whistle. You go to the POI in that situation, and the POI on an inadvertant whistle on a loose ball with no possession is an AP.

Blowing a lead means nothing in this case. I'm not making any judgement because I didn't see the game, but you can't throw out the rules because a team blows a lead.

Why should the crew get penalized if the wrong decision on the play was Lopes' alone? It was his decision <b>only</b> on the replay, being the R.

I'm no expert on the NCAA rules either, but I have been looking at the monitor guidelines quite a bit recently. It may be that Lopes did, in fact, get a rule wrong, not just a judgment call. It seems that in the situation described it was incorrect to consult the monitor since the game clock was not showing 0.00, but rather still had 17 seconds on it.

Here is the NCAA rule that I am basing my statement upon:
2-5-2b

"Ascertain, with the reading of 0.00 on the game clock, whether a
shot-clock violation occurred at or near the expiration of time in any
period;"

On another matter I'm having trouble getting my little mind around the idea that an official of his caliber, or just about any official for that matter, can make 23 bad calls in one game. The coach is bound to lose credibility when about 21 or probably 22 of these alleged bad calls were actually correct.

It can happen and did happen in a final four game a few years ago. Nobody made a public stink about it, but I was in a session where the film was broke down.

Bear in mind that there is a difference between a "bad" call and a "missed" call and a "judgmental no call", but sometimes coaches don't know the difference.

Was this the Duke/UConn men's game?

It doesn't matter if the media knows and tells the punishment or not. Coaches are going to scrutinize Mr. Lopes more closely anyway. IMO, an official should be suspended for making a mistake that costs a game only when a coach is suspended for making a mistake that costs a game.

You make an excellent point. What's wrong with being held accountable and others (the public) knowing that?

In some ways that's frightening new territory. Would it become a slippery slope going from simple public disclosure of previously private discipline to where eventually an official could be publicly sanctioned by more than just his supervisor? Once publicly disclosed discipline, so-called transparency or accountability becomes the norm, more people are going to want in on the act. Will lust for this new form of public execution grow? Will every sports broadcast include whiney-assed, grossly uninformed color commentators calling for discipline of officials for perceived mistakes? When such public pressure inevitably appears, how long until conferences begin to bow to such pressure?

Basketball referees are not elected officials, they are not executives of publicly traded companies. They are simply contractors doing a job. Yes, that job is very visible and connected with very emotionally charged events that have become inextricably tied to a boatload of money. But I see nothing that makes me believe that how a conference deals with officials should be made public. It is little more than bloodlust on the part of coaches, schools, media outlets, and fans that is driving this.

You make a good point, but......
 

When a coach makes a coaching mistake, no one in the school administration goes to the media and rips their coaching staff for it. If a coach misses out on a big time recruit, we do not hear the fall out behind the scenes. There are a lot of mistakes others around the game might make and we never hear anything about how their bosses fell about it. Now I am not saying I always agree that complete silence is the way to go, but I do like the way Mr. Boudreaux decided to handle it. Also if someone is taken off of a game or suspended, why does the general public need to know? I would agree if a rule is completely missed I have no problem with that being made public. But if a simple judgment is missed, that is another story.

Peace

Just to be fair, if a coach starts to mess up he/she will get fired and it will hit the media outlets. Think about this, keeping mistakes in house might mean the NCAA committee will look at a loss differently than if the conference came out and talked about a situation.

I have said this before, there is a lot of money involved and our (officials) mistakes will start to be made public more and more.

Do I know you?

Uh, yeah that was the game. I think you know the official I'm talking about, but I will tell you this. One of the officials went on to the NBA the next season so it wasn't him messing up.

My point is it is a different set of circumstances. An official does not make the kind of money and is not personally as responsible to one entity as a coach is. Yes, we have an important job, but they do not announce when we get hired and they certainly do not announce when we get fired.

You know who the top officials are. They work the tournament every season. I also find it interesting you do not hear a lot of talk about mistakes during the NCAA Tournaments.

Peace

You are right, but let's not be gullable. Where do you think they get all the footage for the NCAA film for the clinic? That says a lot about the system.

If you had millions riding on the job you do, would you put an official on blast if you thought he/she cost you?

If I am relying on an official's call, then I have bigger problems if you ask me.

Peace

Apparently, Mr. Lopes' career isn't over after all. :) I'm pretty sure he worked the Duke game last night.

Yeah, and they had a clock screw-up in that one too.

More to follow......

The part of my post you quoted was in reference to the misapplication of a rule and not a judgement call. If a rule is misapplied the crew as a whole will usually take the rap, because someone on the crew is expected to step in and interpret the rule correctly for the crew.

I agree with you though in the case of a judgement call on the part of one official the whole crew should not take the blame.