Another Blarge
 

Anybody catch the blarge in the Virginia/Maryland game this afternoon. Classic case of Lead calling across the lane on a drive from the C side. Lead goes block, C points the other way. At least they administered it correctly.

Two officials went to the table to explain what was going to happen. The announcers thought they were going to review something. The color commentator: "They can't go to the monitor to decide if it was a block or a charge. I'm not great with the rules, but I know that".

I don't ever recall seeing a blarge in an NBE game. Why so many in college games?

The NBA has a mall number of officials that work with each other OVER and OVER and have much more training and consistency in mechanics. College has so much variation because there are so many more officials and people that hire officials.

Saw an aborted blarge in the FLA/Vandy game last night. T and L both whistle. T has his fists up in the air, ready to bring them down onto his hips. L comes out pointing the other way. T freezes, then puts his hands down, and they went with the PC!

The Vandy coach came 15 feet onto the court pointing at the T 'cause he saw what he had! Cost him a technical for that little display.

Pretty amazing how 2 experienced officials can see the same play and call it differently.

They wonder why "we" make mistakes.

I almost had a Blarge once this year. It was my primary ( as center ) clearly defense had position and never moved. We both blow and partner comes with BLOCK, I have my hand in the air ready to come to my head and I see him give a primary call and I drop mine...I have no doubt I was right, but I am not getting into a BLARGE call.

Does anyone else see the logic that not signaling, just because another official does signal, is actually more damaging to getting the call right than going with a blarge; especially when considering repsected opinions about whose call that "should be" has the non-calling official not signaling when it is his call to make (in other words, the guy that fished out of his pond got the call wrong)?

It should be noted that I haven't a blarge in close to 10 years. :)

Knock On Wood (Eddie Floyd) ...
 

Thirty years and counting for me. Here in my little corner of Connecticut we try not to give a preliminary signal on double whistle, and when such double whistles occur, we usually defer to the lead official. There have been several times when, as the lead, I didn't hear the trail's whistle, and gave a preliminary signal, but in all cases, the trail either didn't give a preliminary signal, or gave the same preliminary signal as me. I guess that I've just been lucky so far. I'm sure that it will happen to me someday.

How much 3-person do you work? I've had one in my career, two years ago in a juco men's game. I was the lead, it was a secondary defender deep in the lane, and the T had no business making the call, let alone such an incredibly wrong one.

We got through it. But now we cover the lane extensively in the pregame -- the lead in most of my games has the deep half of the paint and all secondary defenders in the paint and this has seemed to clean up the outside officials jumping in.

I agree with Juggling, though -- why should a blarge be avoided when one of the calls could be momumentally wrong? Should the first person to signal be the one that prevails EVERY TIME?

Welcome To The Twentieth Century ...
 

Thirty years. One game. A few scrimmages. Remember, this is Connecticut, the Land of Steady Habits, and the Land of the Two Person Game.

And blarges happen most often in 3-person games.

Three, Four, Shut The Door ...
 

I'm sure that there would be even more in a four person game. And I can guarantee you that athletic directors, and principals, will never, ever, pay for four officials here in Connecticut. At least, not while I'm above ground.

It's the overlapping coverages in the 3-person game. If you have a foul in the lane in 2-person, you know who's getting it. 3-person? Not so much.

Ha!

Seeing how the NBA hasn't yet implement the 4-man mechanics that I designed for them, and the NBE doesn't have blarges, then the question would be when will the NCAA go to 4-man? ;)

I expected to get questioned about it.

I talked to my 3rd partner during a TO and he said he had the same thing I had from his position. I had no doubt I was right, but does a BLARGE make the crew look better or worse? They will forget 1 bad call, they will never forget a BLARGE.

JMO.

Nope. They'll forget a blarge a heckuva lot quicker than they'll forget a completely wrong call. At least both teams get something out of a blarge, even though one team shouldn't. A wrong call just makes the whole crew look bad. And you deliberately letting a wrong call stand makes it even worse imo.