Study shows shorter referees call more fouls

[Adam]

Originally Posted by rockyroad

Pretty much the same classes as the guys who wrote this study!

LOL, yeah probably. You sound a bit bitter here, though.

[rockyroad]

Originally Posted by Adam

LOL, yeah probably. You sound a bit bitter here, though.

I wonder why...

Stupid academicians and their "studies".

[Texas Aggie]

I would hope coaches are not reading the Journal of Sports Economics

No need to worry; no one reads it. At least not people that are not economic profs who need SOMETHING to research and publish. Even then, the only readers of this article are those who want to try and refute it.

As someone with a degree in economics, this is somewhat interesting. I say somewhat since there isn't much economic here -- its mainly statistics.

I haven't read the study, but I'd bet money its flawed for one huge reason: if I, a 6 foot nothing (with the emphasis on nothing) official would be on many games with what is characterized as short, medium, AND tall crews. My height, I'd say about average or maybe slightly below given the height of basketball officials, would not skew the crew average of many games. If I worked with 2 short guys, or 1 short and one average like me, we'd be short. Likewise, if I worked with 2 talls or one tall and one average, we'd probably be a tall crew. I could be the one calling all the fouls -- or to give sufficient weight to the findings of the study, several average guys, all factored in the results could be the ones calling all the fouls. If it can be shown that there are more average guys than short guys, then the average guys, not the short ones, could be the ones causing the skewed numbers.

We don't know who on the crew is calling the fouls if they take it from a per game basis. Tall guys could conceivably call more fouls if they're working with exclusively shorter partners, or could call fewer fouls if they're working with guys of similar heights.

The bottom line is I don't think the author understands how basketball is officiated.

[All_Heart]

Originally Posted by Mark Padgett

So, this guy calls about 1000 fouls each game?

During a film breakdown session at camp a number of years ago Nunez (pictured) talked to us about how as a short guy he has to work that much harder to obtain angles then a taller referee. It would almost seem that taller officials would call more fouls because they can see more (outside of their primary). I remember talking to an official that is 6'10" and he would talk about how he has to be careful b/c he can see over the players (HS). He said he was more likely to not move for angles b/c he was less likely to need to as opposed to a 5'5" partner. Obviously this is not the case for a lot of plays in our primary because we have to see in between the offensive/defensive player.

The analogy in football that a taller quarterback has an advantage b/c he can see over the offensive line comes to mind. Same principle can be applied to a very tall referee compared with a short referee.

I don't have much of a point just thinking through some factors that might cause there to be a difference.