Regarding David Libby
 

From Seattle SportsNet
Monday, January 26, 2009

It's Dave Libbey's world, we just live in it

Dave Libbey has no soul. I'm convinced of this. Don't ask me why I'm convinced, I have no reasoning, but if you know who Dave Libbey is, there's a good chance you might just agree with me.

For those of you who don't know Libbey, he's a college basketball referee that makes his home on the West Coast. Libbey has been an official since the early-1980's, and over the years has worked his way up to a certain level of prominence in the world of NCAA hoops.

If you're a hardcore Pac-10 basketball fan, you know Dave Libbey, and you subsequently hate Dave Libbey. Amongst his peers, Libbey may be viewed as a savvy veteran of the profession, but to fans and purists everywhere he's more of a villain than anything else.

When it comes to college basketball, it's all about Dave Libbey. If Dave Libbey is on the call, then Dave Libbey WILL BE the main attraction. You may not think that's the case going in, but by the end of the game you'll know it's the truth. Libbey maintains an iron-fisted grip over his three-man officiating team and overrules anything and everything his minions attempt to do. You see a charge? Dave Libbey sees a block. You want traveling? Dave Libbey sees dribbling. For some refs, there may be such a thing as a no-call situation. For Dave Libbey, every situation requires his influence.


Dave Libbey is always right.

If you watched the Washington-UCLA game on Saturday, you witnessed Dave Libbey at his best. There were technical fouls, blatantly missed calls, questionably called calls, and even a sign in the Dawg Pack that read "Welcome to the Libbey show." The billboard in his honor apparently brought out the best in Libbey, as he walked over to the students before the game, blew kisses, and thanked them for spelling his name correctly. As one fan put it, it was little more than "disturbing."

On message boards around the nation, Libbey is trashed and lambasted by college basketball fans on a seemingly daily basis. However, I did find one message board where the man, the myth, the legend was praised. The forum on Officiating.com is a Dave Libbey lovefest. One user, under the handle "Stripes," offered this praise of Libbey's work: "I have been to Dave's camp held at UCSD. I thought it was excellent. Dave is a great teacher and motivator. At the time I was a JV official..." And we'll stop you right there. You were a JV official.

Just the fact that Libbey is as well-known as he is, is an indictment on his job and his personality. Officiating is a profession based on anonymity. The less people recognize you, the better. If fans can leave a game never knowing you existed, then that likely means you did a great job. Apparently Dave Libbey doesn't play by these rules. He thrives on the attention, and he loves to be in control. He goes out of his way to chastise players, talk to coaches, exchange barbs (not necessarily in a friendly manner) with fans, and showcase his douchebag personality every chance he gets. Dave Libbey may be good for officiating, but he ruins the game of basketball.

*For stats on Libbey's work, click here.

Woohoo, Stripes! Ya got quoted!

At least BTTB is consistent. :(

Did you write this crap or are you going to provide the source information instead of breaking copywrite law?

http://www.seattlesportsnet.com/2009...t-live-in.html

Video link within article: http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=3dm67Gk_pRk

Well, at least they're not speaking ill of Diebler.

This guy also wanted to know how in the world the officials in the Washington-USC game could call a block and charge on the same play, conference, then decide on a double foul (:confused:). I mean really, how is that even possible? :rolleyes:

Clearly, he knows what he's talking about with respect to officiating.

BTTB, how come you haven't taken up officiating?

I could not help myself:

http://www.seattlesportsnet.com/2009...62351359287871

MTD, Sr.

You, Sir, made too much sense for him to understand. LOL!! :D

So Alex is as big an idiot as BTTB.

I have heard Dave Libbey speak on more than one occasion and he knows what he is talking about and holds himself to high standards.

Here is the thread in question: http://forum.officiating.com/showthread.php?t=20209

It's from May 2005. :D

Snaqs:

Methinks that BTTB is Alex of SeattleSportsNet.

MTD, Sr.

Careful, Tom, or you, too, could find yourself quoted by an idiot in a two-bit sports website.

My thought as well, I doubt this thing gets much readership besides his little brother.

I had my first TF since the first Tuesday of last December tonight. Boys' 7th grade of an 7th grade/8th grade DH. V-HC is first year coach and this year is a OhioHSAA Class 4 Basketball Official (Class 4 means the official has retired or gone inactive for the year). V gets blown out. Can you guess who I whacked; you get three guesses and the first two do not count.

I was officiating with an official who had been officiating almost as long as I have annnndddd did not have a clue about on-ball and off-ball coverage. Fortunately both games were blowouts. The DH was scheduled to start at 04:30pm. The V's were late and we did not start until 04:37pm and still walked off the court after the 8th grade game at 06:43pm. My kind of JrHS games.

MTD, Sr.

MTD--

You've been replied to by the high and mighty Alex himself at his blog. LET THE FLAMEWAR ENSUE!:D:D:D

Don:

Are you serious? He has blogged already?

MTD, Sr.

Well, it was a response to your post with one of his own in the original article.

I threw in my two cents for the fun of it.

Stop it!!! You're making too much sense on his blog, stop it! LOL!!!! :p

Don:

Good for you. I just responded again. But I am afraid that this is flame war that is going to be very boring, like having a gun fight with an unarmed man.

MTD, Sr.


P.S. Go Jayhawks!

Rock Chalk amigo.

I wish I had more time for this tonight but my shift at work is almost up.

By the way, Alex disagrees with your internet speak. ROFLMAO!

If what I see is correct... SeattleSportsnet.com is really a URL pointing to a Blogger account, and they call themselves the "The fan's premiere online source for Seattle professional and collegiate sports info and analysis"? :rolleyes:

To quote a comrade, ROFLMAO! :)

I have a feeling the use of ROFLMAO on this board will increase by at least 50%.:p

He has started a second blog about our thread here in the Forum:

http://www.seattlesportsnet.com/2009...ne-libbey.html

MTD, Sr.

My guess is that will increase our traffic by one or two trolls.

Maybe the pseudo-journalists will read this:

How come none you of Seattle faux-journalists have never taken up the avocation of basketball officiating?

Funny he rips us for misspelling Libbey's name, but it was the Libbey-bashing OP (probably the moronic blogger himself) that did it. Hell, this thread isn't even about Libbey anymore.

I love it when the fans boo!! :D

MTD, Sr.

I love it when people dig their own holes, coach, fan, or otherwise.:D

And it's not even March yet.

Mark and others, please keep one thing in mind when reading that blog: Alex and his buddies are UW Husky fans. There were probably too many big words in your response for them to handle. :p Otherwise, good job!

And "UW Kuwaiti" needs a hug. :D

I've enjoyed your banter with this knuckle head blogger. It's too funny to read. Here's an interesting article about Dave Libbey that is pretty straight forward and not slanted in either direction; and to top it off, the writer is from Arizona. :)

http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/wildcats/277094

- nice story, I would have loved to seen this. Karl Malone wouldn't have liked Libbey:) "In a 2001 game at Pauley Pavilion, Arizona forward Michael Wright patiently set up to shoot a free throw. The Wildcats led 62-60 in a game of Top 25 teams. As Wright was set to launch his shot, Libbey stopped play.
He ruled Wright had taken too long. Ball to UCLA. The Bruins won in overtime, 79-77.
"I've never seen that call in 40-some years of coaching," UA coach Lute Olson roared."

Good Lord, how long did he stand there, then? My count on free throws is so slow it's almost a joke.

The reason that the complaints about Libbey have some traction is in fact incidents like this.

Michael Wright was known for taking a long time to shoot free-throws. I think some other P10 coaches actually complained about it. He always was really slow.

The issue that people have with Libbey, and how he chose to deal with this, was that it seemed like it was done in the manner designed to make it as big a deal as possible, rather than just resolving the situation, if in fact it needed resolution at all.

Wright *always* took forever, so why wait until he is shooting free throws at the end of a close game to address the problem? Wright, at the time, was one of the best power forwards in the conference, and went to the free throw line a lot. Why not handle this at some other point? A warning early in the game, a quick comment to Olson - "Hey coach, Wright is taking too long and we are getting complaints, tell him to speed it up" and then bang him early if you must?

Same with the illegal screen call on Hill. Was it illegal by rule? Maybe...but it sure didn't look like anything that typically gets called at any point in the game, much less in THAT situation. At least in this case, Libbey seems to have realized it, and said afterward he punted the call.

Where is the line between having the balls to make the late call, and LOOKING for a late call to make? Libbey certainly is not afraid to call what he sees, no matter what point of the game it is in - and he should be (and is) commended for that.

But sometimes I wonder if maybe he is doing a bit more - beyond being unafraid to make the Big Call, he sometimes looks like he WANTS there to be a Big Call to be made.

Final score of the Washington State Univ. at Arizona State game: WSU: 65, and ASU: 55. And the best part, is that Dave Libbey was the R, :D.

MTD, Sr.

Dave Libbey has been "Gutless" ever since he refused to T up Univ. of Portland coach Jack Avina in the 1983 Far West Classic. I mean, Hey-zoos! The Pilots were gettin' jobbed against Wazzou on their home floor!!
DL did get the assistant for going to the table to check on a possible scoring error during a live ball later.

How's THAT for a reference M.P.?

As the saying goes in D1 officiating, supplied by Richie Ballasteros, Pac-10 official God and owner of great hair, "You want the coaches to see you walk on the floor and say, 'Did you see the size of the wheelbarrow he was pushing?'"

DL's got a big one.

Who in the world is M.P. and can anyone spell T R O L L? :D

MTD, Sr.

MP usually means Mike Pereira, one of the most fan-friendly directors of officiating in pro sports.

Yes, I can spell troll. It is O D J. :)

Ummm
 

This hero worship for an official makes me wanna 'fro up. Some guy doesn't like Libbey's style and writes about it and people start ripping him personally for it.

Uh, I think some guy is ripping David Libby personally and then gets his feelings hurt when people rip him. It's called being a hypocrite.

Also, why is ok to rip David Libby but not ok to defend him?

Thirdly, I haven't seen anyone worshipping David Libby. Mostly folks point out that he has been to multiple Final Fours and regularly gets assigned the big games in the PAC-10. That's not worship, that's pointing out facts.

Get a grip.

What does 'fro up mean?

Something to do with his hair, I think.

Maybe he's Ben Wallace, cornrows one night, afro when Dave Libby is working.

Jugs:

Now I am going to THROW UP!!

MTD, Sr.