The "Worst Thing" an Official Can Do?

[dahoopref]

Originally Posted by Nevadaref

Hightower just did something far worse tonight.

Near the end of the first half he was the Lead and got confused by the shot clock horn sounding during a try with 1.4 seconds remaining. Despite the try hitting the ring, Hightower blew his whistle and waved both arms in the air during rebounding action!

Can anyone send him a mechanics manual?

From what you saw do you think it was a lack of game awareness or just a lack of trust in his partners?

[Nevadaref]

Originally Posted by dahoopref

From what you saw do you think it was a lack of game awareness or just a lack of trust in his partners?

Obviously, game awareness had a great deal to do with it as one has to know that a shot clock horn may be coming just prior to the game clock expiring. In this case the horn sounded just as the try bounced off the ring.

I can't speak to his trust in his partners. I don't know him personally, so there is no way that I could justly make any such statement.

From what I saw it looked as if he simply reacted to the horn as there was a tap for goal coming from his PCA on the rebound.

We know that he has been around for many years and that his career even extends back into the days when officiating at the NCAA level was done with only two officials. There have been several changes since those times and it is understandable that a person who has been through all those alterations of rules and mechanics would make a slip in a moment where he was either caughy by surprise or his concentration lapsed.

My issue with the whole situation is that as Lead it is absurd for him to blow the whistle under any circumstance other than a violation or a foul.

Even if his partner who had the last shot responsibility fell asleep, the NCAA D1 level has a courtside monitor review for end of the period situations. Therefore, no whistle from any of the officials, and even no horn at the end of the period would have been easily handled, and with more fairness to the teams than Hightower reacting as he did and causing an IW. In the video replay era, there is simply no reason for him to make a call.

My conjecture is that when he heard the horn he reverted to his original training and killed the play right away, which seems the natural thing to do when confronted with a situation that is surprising.