I love the NCAA Tournament.
The first weekend of the tourney is the greatest made-for-television
events in all of sports. (If you need proof that it is a creature of
television, watch for all of the empty seats in most of the venues.) CBS has done nothing but perfect its product
with its four network format. I have
basically spent 12 hours over each of the past two days buried in my recliner
with little or no respite. My wife is
now boycotting the living room due to the smell.
I think you get the picture – I love college basketball and
I love this tournament. I am willing to
live with extra long commercial breaks and half times (being able to switch to
another channel for more action certainly helps). I am willing to put up with commentators and
analysts who are ill prepared and are not familiar with the college game. What I am not willing to tolerate is the
underwhelming, atrocious performances by a large number of the games’
officials.
I have played sports my whole life and for much of my
younger years I was an official basher.
As a player, I had little patience for the ineptitude of poor
officiating or umpiring. A funny thing happened along the way. For four years in the late 1990’s, I became a
part time referee and umpire. There is a
tough learning curve and I came to appreciate the efforts of the people working
the games. As I gained more experience,
my goal became to be unnoticed in any game I worked. This may sound odd to some but if you have
ever played sports, you know that if a referee or an umpire is doing a good
job, then you don’t even notice them.
This does not mean never blowing your whistle. It means you hustle, make the right calls at
the right time, and be as fair as you possibly can.
The problem I am having with this tournament specifically,
and with sports in general, is that officials are becoming too noticeable. They seem to be grabbing the spotlight more
and more. (This is becoming a giant issue
in major league baseball as well.) There
have been two games where the officials have had a major hand in the outcomes
of the games. (UNC Asheville/Syracuse
and Xavier/Notre Dame) It is hard to say
the officials won or lost a game for any team but they certainly prevented a
few teams from having a fair opportunity to win some games.
During my 24 hours of basketball gluttony, I have seen a
plethora of horrible officiating. I have
seen late whistles, blown calls on obvious plays, calls made by the wrong
official, calls made by officials not in the correct position to make the
correct calls, missed basket interferences, players pummeled without penalty,
players called for breathing too hard on an opponent, and making rulings on
obscure rules that I have never seen called before in games. Twice, I have seen players just simply fall
down and their defenders drew whistles.
Not only have the officials seemed intent on taking the games out of the
players’ control, but they have made the wrong calls over and over.
As an official, the block/charge call was absolutely the
hardest call to make. There is so much
to watch for and it happens so fast, it is very hard to be sure you are making
the right call. I cannot tell you though
how many of these calls I have seen over the past 2 days. I bet that the officials have gotten the call
wrong 75% of the time. I was a huge
proponent of adding the arc under the basket.
I thought is would help the officials get this call right. I was wrong.
It has actually hurt the game.
Officials are so busy looking at the feet, they miss the big picture. Basically, they see if the feet are in or out
of the arc and make their call based on that, regardless of what else might be
happening. As someone who has played,
officiated, and watched thousands of games, I would estimate that about 60% of
the time, this call should be a block.
The officials have called the overwhelming majority of these calls
around the basket as charges. There have
been two I can remember they call blocks, and replays showed both should have
been charges. They just can’t get it
right.
I am also tired of everyone just sweeping the problem under
the rug. Game announcers avoid
commenting on the mistakes of officials like it will result in their
beheading. They just nod and agree with
every call. Unless it is Charles
Barkley, the analysts are not calling out these officials. I am tired of the argument that officials are
just like players and they make mistakes.
While it is true to an extent, players are 20 year old kids and
officials are mature, paid professionals.
The players are held responsible for their mistakes while officials have
people make excuses for their errors and the television crews work hard to cover
up any incompetence with officials.
Officials in any game in any sports should not be part of
the story but this is becoming more and more the case as officials seem to want
their share of the bright spotlight. If
I could relay a message to the officials it would be to tell them to just do their
job, do it better, and let the players decide the games. Make the right calls at the right time and no
one will even notice you. That should be
the goal of every official.
