Final 4 Officials

[fullor30]

Originally Posted by cornhole21

Who will it be this year in the annual thread?

Eades
Hightower
Higgins

A nice article on Eades......... sorry for the length

Princeton man is one of basketball's best referees

By Dave Morrison
Register-Herald sports editor

Nobody grows up with the goal of becoming a basketball official. Princeton’s Mike Eades was no different.

A former basketball player in high school and college, Eades thought he would be content doing something in the teaching field. His basketball would be limited to rec league games.

Things didn’t quite work out that way.

Eades, 44, is a basketball official in the Atlantic Coast and Southeastern conferences. In other words, the big time of college basketball.

He also does games in the Colonial, Southern, Atlantic 10 and Big Sky conferences.

“Never, at any point, did I think I would be doing this,” Eades said recently. “But you know what? It’s a great situation. I’ve had a lot of lucky breaks and I’ve been fortunate. It just kind of worked out this way.”

Eades played high school basketball at Princeton, and came within an upset loss to Wheeling Park as a junior from winning three straight Class AAA state titles. That was during the Allen Williams/Jimmy Miller era.

After that, he went to Lees-McRae for two years before heading to Division II (at the time) UNC-Greensboro.

The coach left after his first year and Eades returned home, finished school and continued his career in rec leagues. And that was where, as it turned out, a career was born.

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Like most officials, Eades started out close to home.

“I started off refereeing games at the rec center in Princeton, probably 16 or 17 years ago,” he said. “From there it progressed up to junior varsity and then to high school games.”

Back then, the ACC and the SEC were the furthest thing from Eades’ mind.

“”My first goal, when I started out, was high school games,” he said. “Then my ultimate goal became getting in the West Virginia Conference. Sounds funny now, but the WVC seemed like the top of the officiating world.”

Eades did that.

“I did women’s games the first two years,” he said. “John Holt, the supervisor for officials in the conference, thought I would be better suited for the women’s game. But I really didn’t like that game. Nothing against the women’s game, I just didn’t like the pace. I begged John for a chance to do men’s games.”

Eades got his break when an official headed to Concord for a game was involved in an auto accident.

He had just done a women’s game in Athens, right up the road from his home, when he got the call.

It went well and he stayed, doing WVC, ODAC and even NAIA games at Mountain State in Beckley. Holt also assigns the officials for MSU games.

In fact, Eades, who has done several NCAA Tournament games but just one championship (Division II in 2000), had a chance to do the NAIA national title game in 2003.

MSU spoiled those plans.

He did several games in the tournament and the first game of the Final Four. MSU was playing in the second Final Four contest and Eades, a West Virginian, was obviously not getting that gig.

“They told me if Mountain State lost, I’d be doing the championship game,” Eades said. “If they won, I’d be going home. You know what. I went out and rooted for MSU to win. I wanted to see (coach) Bob (Bolen) and those guys do well.”

Still, it hasn’t stopped Eades, a hard-line referee known for not taking a lot of garbage from players and coaches, from calling it even when he has done Mountain State games.

“He’s one of the best friends I have,” Eades said, “but when I do their games, I call it even. I guess I have teed him up a couple of times. I reffed the only game they lost in 2004 when they won the title. I still tell Bob they wouldn’t have won the title that year if they’d won that game.”

n n n

Eades is quick to dispel several officiating myths.

One, that referees will give make-up calls when they miss a call earlier.

“I’ve never done that, and honestly, I don’t know of any referee who would do that,” Eades said. “That’s not going to happen with me.”

What about officials trying to even up calls? Often, coaches will let an official know when the foul totals are, in their opinion, skewed.

“You start doing things like that, you don’t last long,” Eades said. “You have to make the correct call.”

Officials don’t hear things coming from the stands.

“I hear it all,” Eades said. “Some of it is pretty funny. A lot of it is X-rated. Mostly, if you turn and laugh, they’ll leave you alone after that.”

And just what is it that elicits a technical foul?

“If they are cursing in conversation, that’s one thing,” Eades said. “But if they are cursing at you, that’s a different thing. I’m not afraid to jump in there and tee a coach up. You can’t be passive. You have to make the call.”

Eades said he is fully aware of the score, the players on the court, everything, even late in the game, despite some officials saying they try not to look at things like scores and situations.

“I’ve always been aware of what the score is; I try to be aware of time, score, fouls, timeouts, the possession arrow,” Eades said. “The more court awareness you have, the better off you’ll be.”

Not that every call is perfect, even by Eades, a self-proclaimed perfectionist.

“Usually, you’ll know right away if you miss a call,” Eades said. “If a coach questions me on a call and I missed it, I’ll tell them that. Most of the time, they’re OK. But if you go over there and lie to them, you’re hung.”

Like players, he studies.

A lot.

“I watch a lot of tape,” Eades said. “And when I do it, I look more for mistakes. I want to be the best I can be.”

All signs point to Eades being just that.

He was voted the ACC Commissioner’s Award as 2006 ref of the year, as voted on by his fellow officials.

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Eades may be best remembered by West Virginia fans in an infamous way. It came on what many fans perceived as a non-call on a late shot attempt by WVU’s Mike Gansey against Texas in the Guardian’s Classic in Kansas City in 2005. Ironically, that was the same site where he nearly got to call the NAIA national title — Municipal Auditorium.

Gansey was taking the ball to the basket as time was running out with the Mountaineers trailing 76-75. As he drove to the basket there was contact.

“I can still see the play in my head,” Eades said. “It’s a tough play when it happens live. But it was my play. I thought at the time it was not a foul. After the game, we got booed pretty good by the fans. One of the (other refs) asked me if I was sure it was a foul. Then, the head official’s phone rang. It was our supervisor. I still remember the head official’s eyes darting all over the place. Finally, he gave us the thumbs-up.”

WVU coach John Beilein never questioned the call.

Gansey was asked after the game about the play and said he wasn’t fouled and the play wouldn’t have mattered had WVU made its free throws down the stretch.

“I thought that showed a lot of class on his part,” Eades said. “Later, we (the officials) were having dinner at a sports place, and Fran Frachilla (a former Big East coach) was talking about the principle of verticality. Gansey had initiated the contact.”

Yet ...

“I still hear about it,” Eades said. “I go out and golf and there are Mountaineer fans at the course. Sure enough, they mention that call. We usually get a good laugh out of it. Hey, I got that one right.”

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The best compliment that arbiter Eades can give his craft is this: He wouldn’t mind his son Anthony someday donning a striped shirt.

“We watch a lot of tape together and he can usually see a mistake I make before I do,” Eades said. “He’ll say, ‘Dad, you missed that one.’ I’ll say, ‘No way’ and rewind the tape. Sure enough, I missed it.”

Anthony, like his dad, is an aspiring basketball player.

Having a son who is now old enough to play is one of the drawbacks. He is sometimes on the road and away from wife Gina and Anthony for a week.

He is often up at 4:30 a.m., on a flight by 6 a.m. and headed for his next city.

“Here’s the key,” Eades said. “Learn to sleep on planes. And get to your next destination early enough so that you can sleep in the afternoon.”

Often the officials — who are paid before each game — have dinner after their game and get back to their hotel around midnight. Then it’s back at it again the next day.

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Eades is the only state native who is currently a Division I referee.

“I think there are some younger guys who are good enough to get into the Big East, SEC or ACC,” Eades said. “Why am I the only one? I can’t answer that.”

He has made the most of the opportunity.

Last year, he called NCAA Tournament games in San Jose, Calif.

He also enjoys giving back and helping fellow officials.

He figures he has tutored nearly 100 referees and helped many move up in levels.

He figures to keep going as long as possible.

“As long as I’m healthy, that is,” Eades said.

His goals are obviously different these days.

“I’d like to call a Final Four; that’s every official’s goal,” Eades said. “But even if I don’t, I’ve still had a great time.”