Official working both the Men and Women's NCAA Tournament in the same Year!

[WhistlesAndStripes]

Originally Posted by AZ_REF

I wasn't a doubter. I merely reported the facts. Last year, they said it was impossible. This year however, the women's side planned for it and assigned a Sunday site accordingly.

Originally Posted by AZ_REF

So it looks like it may never be possible to work both tourneys in the same year.

Your words, not mine.

[Mendy Trent]

Originally Posted by AZ_REF

For all of you who were convinced it was impossible last year (see Official working both the Men and Women's NCAA Tournament in the same Year? ) it WILL happen this year.

There is a D-I official working a Men's game tonight and a Women's game on Sunday. I will post links to box scores after Sunday's games.

I don't want to get into the details yet, because there is more secrecy with who's working what game this year than there is about what really happened to Jimmy Hoffa. We can all thank Mr Donaghy for that.

You mean an official can be excellent in men's AND women's basketball? Say it isn't so. Heresy! And I had always heard that it was impossible to adjust to the differences between the two levels.

[rainmaker]

Originally Posted by Mendy Trent

You mean an official can be excellent in men's AND women's basketball? Say it isn't so. Heresy! And I had always heard that it was impossible to adjust to the differences between the two levels.

Not everyone distinguishes between the two games by calling them "levels". And not everyone thinks it's impossible to adjust between the two styles.

[socalreff]

Originally Posted by rainmaker

Not everyone distinguishes between the two games by calling them "levels". And not everyone thinks it's impossible to adjust between the two styles.

Amen!!! I'm coming to your church because the message is truth.

[Mendy Trent]

Originally Posted by rainmaker

Not everyone distinguishes between the two games by calling them "levels". And not everyone thinks it's impossible to adjust between the two styles.

I'm with you rainmaker. My post was entirely sarcastic. I have seen posts where people say you cannot ref women's ball and also be a good ref for men's ball and I've always found it ridiculous.

[Adam]

Originally Posted by Mendy Trent

I'm with you rainmaker. My post was entirely sarcastic. I have seen posts where people say you cannot ref women's ball and also be a good ref for men's ball and I've always found it ridiculous.

That's odd. I don't remember seeing those posts. I remember seeing people burn down this particular strawman, but I've never seen the actual claims you speak of.

What I have seen, however, is people claim that just being good at one particular game or the other (mens or womens) does not mean the official will necessarily be good at the other.

[Dan_ref]

Originally Posted by Snaqwells

That's odd. I don't remember seeing those posts. I remember seeing people burn down this particular strawman, but I've never seen the actual claims you speak of.

What I have seen, however, is people claim that just being good at one particular game or the other (mens or womens) does not mean the official will necessarily be good at the other.

Hey, we have people trying to start a religion and religious war here both at the same time. Do not confuse them with the facts.

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by rainmaker

Not everyone distinguishes between the two games by calling them "levels". And not everyone thinks it's impossible to adjust between the two styles.

I'm a high school varsity official who also does Catholic school games on weekends, down to the "level" of fourth, and fifth, grade, boys, and girls.

The biggest adjustment that I find I have to make, is from a Thursday night girls varsity game, to a Friday night boys varsity game. Not vice versa, and not with any other "level" change from night to night, or day to day. I guess that it has to do with calling a game below the rim, to calling a game above the rim?

[AZ_REF]

Extra credit to socallref for guessing correctly.

He had the UCLA - Mississippi Valley State game on Thursday:

http://scores.espn.go.com/ncb/boxscore?gameId=284000032


And the Iowa - Georgia women's game today:

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncw/boxscore?gameId=284000017


As a side note he was one of the 3 officials suspended by the big sky this year. One of the other's Eric Curry had the USC - Kansas State game. Glad to see they still earned postseason assignments.

[socalreff]

Originally Posted by AZ_REF

Extra credit to socallref for guessing correctly.

He had the UCLA - Mississippi Valley State game on Thursday:

http://scores.espn.go.com/ncb/boxscore?gameId=284000032


And the Iowa - Georgia women's game today:

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncw/boxscore?gameId=284000017


As a side note he was one of the 3 officials suspended by the big sky this year. One of the other's Eric Curry had the USC - Kansas State game. Glad to see they still earned postseason assignments.

I think that's where we all wanna get to... goof up majorly and it doesn't affect the schedule too much. I guess it's better to goof at the top than on your way up.

[rainmaker]

Okay so assuming that all the facts stated in this thread are correct, namely that

Originally Posted by socalreff

There's a conference that has the same assignor for both sides and encourages some officials to do both if they would like.

Originally Posted by Scrapper1

And it's not "poaching" because the official obviously works both on a regular basis. Poaching connotes taking something that isn't yours, so to speak. This is clearly not the case here. It's simply two organizations making sure they both get a piece of the same official.

...I could agree with Dan that someone may planned something so a single ref could work both tourneys, although it seems a little far-fetched to me. But that's a lot different from what AZ-REF said

Originally Posted by AZ_REF

This year however, the women's side planned for it and assigned a Sunday site accordingly.

..that the women's side did the planning and actually chose a site presumably based on a site that the men had already reserved.

Seems more likely that the planning that happened was that one assignor (either men's or women's) wanted to use this person, knew it was possible the other assignor would want to, and they contacted each other and planned their assignments (not the sites!) based on a win-win philosophy.

[WhistlesAndStripes]

Originally Posted by AZ_REF

For all of you who were convinced it was impossible last year (see Official working both the Men and Women's NCAA Tournament in the same Year? ) it WILL happen this year.

There is a D-I official working a Men's game tonight and a Women's game on Sunday. I will post links to box scores after Sunday's games.

I don't want to get into the details yet, because there is more secrecy with who's working what game this year than there is about what really happened to Jimmy Hoffa. We can all thank Mr Donaghy for that.

If this is the case, I guess this official decided in advance that he will work 1 NCAA Men's tourney and be done with the Men's tourney? I say this because, my understanding is that officials advance through the tourney just as the teams do, or in other words, once you sit out a round, you're done. By choosing to work a 1st round men's game on Thursday, and then a first round Women's game on Sunday, I would think that said official will not be available for any Saturday Men's games either due to needing to get to his women's assignment site. Am I missing something here?

[M&M Guy]

Originally Posted by Whistles & Stripes

If this is the case, I guess this official decided in advance that he will work 1 NCAA Men's tourney and be done with the Men's tourney? I say this because, my understanding is that officials advance through the tourney just as the teams do, or in other words, once you sit out a round, you're done. By choosing to work a 1st round men's game on Thursday, and then a first round Women's game on Sunday, I would think that said official will not be available for any Saturday Men's games either due to needing to get to his women's assignment site. Am I missing something here?

I don't know all the specifics as to the NCAA tournament scheduling. But I do know games for the men's and women's tournament are on different days, so a lot of the logistics would have to do with the times and locations of games. Looking at it from a regular season perspective, a vast majority of the top officials have no problem getting from site to site by the next day. It's not like football, where they have to be there for the pre-game the night before; as long as they are at the game site at the required time (usually 1.5 to 2 hrs. ahead). I don't see how it would be any different for this official.