Column: "Officials Make Calls Differently in Tourney"

[bainsey]

Here's the link.

[Raymond]

Sure they are officiated differently. Because you now have your best officials on the court working together in all the games. You have more thorough pre-games. You have more consistency.

In the regular season you're going to have mediocre and poor officials working your games.

And as the author pointed out, you now have 3-man crews in all the games as opposed to 2-man.

[M&M Guy]

Do the players play the same way during the tourney as they do in the regular season? Do coaches always coach the same way during the tourney? When those questions are found to be an absolute "yes", then it's fair to look at the number of fouls called in a game and attribute that to only the officials.

[Adam]

1) officiating before bigger crowds,

2) working pressure one-and-done games,

3) constantly being evaluated adds to the pressure,

4) also, if they wanted to work another game, then they had better call the game as the evaluators wanted in the past or wants them to do today,

5) working with officials that they did not work with during the regular season and not knowing if the coaches really wanted them to officiate the game,

6) officials not working many three-person games during the regular season until prelim or tournament games.

7) using three officials today with six eyes being able to see more than four eyes is probably the biggest of the seven reasons.

Wow, what a tool.
1. The guys getting picked for tourny games were likely working in front of big crowds a good portion of the season.
2. Hardly a reason for anything. He could just as easily have used this excuse if statistics showed the reverse; fewer calls in post season games. This actually would go more towards the players actually committing more fouls.
3. No pressure here, either. These guys were getting evaluated all season and this is their reward.
4. Valid
5. Not valid, as has been noted, this just makes for better pregames with higher quality officials.
6. ???
7. He really needs to do some homework on this one. 3 officials don't typically result in more foul calls; just more accurate foul calls.

Is this what passes for journalism in Maine?

[bainsey]

Originally Posted by Snaqwells

Is this what passes for journalism in Maine?

No. It's a column, an opinion piece.

[26 Year Gap]

I read the column. Many of his pieces are very good. This one is not. I have played in a tournament game in the Bangor Auditorium. The nerves are up a few notches. There are probably more turnovers in tournament games. There are probably lower shooting percentages in tournament games. There are probably more missed FTs and layups in tournament games. And there are probably more fanboys at tournament games.

With respect to officials, the top ones are usually chosen and some make the transition from 2 to 3 easily. You are not as apt to see whistles swallowed in these games. I did my first playoff game this year. It went pretty smoothly for the most part as we had worked as a crew a couple of weeks prior and probably had our best game of the season in the words of the R. One kid got 3 PFs & 2 TFs by midway through the 2nd quarter. We didn't call the game differently, but maybe he played differently.

Check out the age discrimination article that is a link near the bottom of this one.

btw Full disclosure: the author was one of my instructors before the gap in the Officiating class I took.

[just another ref]

There's another doozy linked from that same page.

Numerous traveling calls spoil tourney — Maine Sports — Bangor Daily News

........they have called so many traveling violations it makes my head spin.

News flash: the game has changed over the past hundred years to become faster-paced and more explosive. At the professional and collegiate level, players are granted certain “hop steps” as they handle the basketball, and only an archaic understanding of the rules would now take issue with their maneuvers.

I saw a number of kids trying it out successfully in the tournament, perfectly imitating what they watch their heroes do on TV, only to get whistled for traveling before finishing a beautiful move.

I just saw five guys use that move in a college game the other day, and no one was called for traveling.

[26 Year Gap]

Originally Posted by just another ref

There's another doozy linked from that same page.

Numerous traveling calls spoil tourney — Maine Sports — Bangor Daily News

That wasn't his column, though.

[Jurassic Referee]

Know what? I don't have to read those articles (and I didn't) to know it's the exact same crap that gets printed every year in a whole bunch of different states.

Same old, same old....

[IREFU2]

Teams tend to play different in Post Season, therefore we adjust our calling to fit the game. More offense, lower foul count, better ball and less calls!!!!