I dont get College reffing
 

I watch too much college basketball. Maybe I am ignorant. Maybe I am a poor back seat referee. I feel that the college game is being called more and more like the pro game. Last nights Tennessee - Vandy game was a perfect example. Full body contact overlooked and touch fouls on top being called. Travels inside the lane where big men shuffled their feet prior to shooting, no call. On two occasions, the big man shuffled, got his defender to leave his feet, drew contact and got two shots. If I were a college coach I'm afraid I'd be T'd up every game (one reason why I'm not a college coach). Not saying all college reffing is bad. It just seems that the college game is getting watered down like the pros. I hope I am wrong.

I do not agree with your point. Some of the huge games in recent weeks have been worked by the "big time" guys. Guys that have definitely earned the right to work those games.

I do not believe that the college game is being watered to match the NBA game by any stretch. The games in recent weeks have been hard fought between bitter rivals where no one wants to lose especially when it comes to your in state rivals (i.e Memphis-Tenn or Tenn-Vanderbilt).

Almost all of officiating has to due with angles. If you cannot get this best angle or the correct angle, then that does affect 100% what the official is able to see or not able to see which then determines the call to be made or not made.

two words: Tyler Hansbrough

Tom Izzo Radio Comments
 

Today on Izzo's (Michigan States boys coach) daily radio commentary, the topic was the chronically poor officiating this year at the highest levels of D1 ball. According to Izzo, the biggest concern he had was consistency of calls or lack there of. Also mentioned was the grueling schedule some of the top tier refs keep. He offered the idea of having the refs focus on being refs and not engage in other careers. Also mentioned was limiting refs to two nights a week of reffing. His answers may have been a bit uninformed (don't know, just guessing). However, Izzo is renowned for giving thoughtful comments, not off-the-cuff complaints.

LOL. Fine with me! Show me the money and I'll gladly quit my day job.

Ok, so guys can't work their regular 9-5 & they can't earn more than a 2 game check per week either... :confused:

Was there a poll or something that determined this opinion?

Did he offer some kind of financial incentive for folks to give up their chosen careers outside of basketball?

Did he offer a plan to replace the money officials would lose by working only 2 nights a week? Did he also promise not to complain about less experienced officials who would then be working his games against Wisconsin and Indiana?

Being a Michigan guy, I actually have some respect for Izzo and most things he might say. This is something he does not know a damn thing about. He is only running his mouth because he is looking at the issue through a very narrow window. He is like many coaches; they only know what the system is in their conference and do not think outside the box. If you were to only require officials to work 2 times a week, you would have to double the current staff and you would have officials working that did not ever work D1 games that did not in the past.

I love when people come up with solutions, but do not know how to implement those solutions into reality.

Peace

Every February this comes up as an issue. Top tier officials are working 6 nights a week all over the country and cannot keep up with the game.

Then the following summer these same officials get assigned 6 nights a week all over the country because...wait for it... because the coaches ask for them.

Puh-leeze. If these multimillion dollar a year coaches don't want to see the overworked top tier officials night after night then they could make that happen.

But they don't.

But that doesn't stop them from b1tching every February, does it?

You're missing the point. The real point is that they want those two nights per week to be THEIR games. Izzo doesn't want Steve Welmer flying in all bleary-eyed because this is his 42nd straight day of working. Izzo wants Welmer flying in fresh as a daisy because he's been off since the last time he flew in. 4 days ago. For their last game.

But Izzo doesn't want to pay what it would take to make these guys full time employees of the conference. It's cheaper to whine and insist somebody else shold do something about it.

Silly Izzo.

If I had a dollar on how many times a coach has said this...

At the risk of sounding like a #$#$@@..

How many big guys in the paint have you refereed from the floor?

I can tell you from my experiences that it is not as easy as you think.
I have been on the floor blowing a whistle with some of the biggest and best that have played the game... and others who wanna be.

1) When you ref the defense and are reffing it hard you may actually miss some of the minor stuff because the defender is 6'11 and 250 and so is the guy with the ball,

2) When refereeing a big guy that tall can you actually look at his feet and referee where the ball is at? and still referee the defense?

3) Sometimes (yes even in high schhol games) we miss travels because it looked like a good move. I bet some big guys get more travels called on them because they look clumsy o cant make an athletic move (MArk Eaton vs Tim Duncan)

I actually think in some cases Izzo may be kind of right, the coaches are working certain referees too hard. Working 6 games a week on the travel schedules that some of these guys work is tough on anybody...And after 10 or 12 weeks of it, the refs may have some off games,....

The conferences could easily hire the officials, pay them an acceptable wage, and then limit through conflict of interest clauses to one maybe two conferences.

( But then who gets what ref when they all want the same guys???)

I will make what I think will be an unpopular observation.

A NBA official calls the game a certain way and it is just entertainment or the league tells them how to call it (star treatment).

A college official makes similar calls, but they are one of the "Big Dogs" - they have earned the right to call the game so...they HAVE to be right.

That is just an observation.