2011 Tournament Discussion Redux

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Originally Posted by Jurassic Referee

As per John Adams, a 5-second call is the same as any other judgment call. And istant replay wouldn't be applicable because you couldn't get conclusive evidence, not knowing the quickness of the count.

Head of officials defends NCAA tournament officiating - Campus Rivalry: College Football & Basketball News, Recruiting, Game Picks, and More - USATODAY.com

Makes sense to me.

I agree in part, but the whole idea of the visible count is to show that the official is counting and the arm swings give an idea of how fast or slow the official's count is. Adams' explaination does not go into the mechanics of making the 5-second call without 5 arm swings.

This is an extreme parallel example, but what if an official called a 5-second closely guarded violation without making any arm swings but he says that he counted to 5 in his head? IMO, while the violation might be the correct call the official has made a grave mistake in mechanics. We have mechanics for consistency and clarity and it's important for us as officials to be mechanically sound.

Dick Cartmell is a great official and is usually working on the 2nd weekend of the tournament. If we don't see him I would guess that it would be because of this play, but my guess is that he will work a game this weekend.