How bad was the officiating tonight?

[pfister1]

I did get nervous for a bit, but once I realized they were safely covering the spread, I didn't care anymore.

A friend of mine officiates a number of sports for both genders, some at the collegiate level. His take is that the abusive atmosphere in high school sports towards refs, from both players and parents, causes a lot of the potential (ref)talent to leave before their careers take root. He told a story of having to clear the gym during one game with the help of the state police, and finish the game with empty bleachers, as well as another time when he was spat upon at halftime of a football game, and followed home with a tire iron. That was over a pass interference call in the first quarter. As I've said in the past, this society seems to lose touch with priorities and even reality when it comes to sports, and his first hand POV on the lack of talent sounds plausible to me. This game didnt have the feel like the plenty where the refs bailed out the Patriots, it wasnt orchestrated.

This makes a lot of sense to me. You couldn't pay me enough to want to be an official in any sport. It is a tough job, really tough to get all of the calls right, or even come close to getting them right and then you have zero tolerance from coaches, players and fans for any mistake you make.

On top of that you have more and more games being played, and need for more officials.

 

[Scooch]

My son plays hockey. He's on a squirt-level travel team, which is 9 and 10 year olds. Often the refs for his games are a teenager working alongside an adult. It is appalling to see the vitriolic abuse that gets heaped on 16 year olds reffing a squirt hockey game. People should be ashamed of themselves, but of course they're not.

So yeah, who on earth would want to subject themselves to that.

Still, college refereeing is terrible. I prefer the NBA game to college, in no small part due to the NBA not calling 100 charges a game.

 

[pfister1]

I prefer the NBA game to college, in no small part to the NBA not calling 100 charges a game.

Yet you watch the NBA game and see the players complain about every call that is or is not made and you see where all the vitriol towards referees comes from. Starts at the top works its way down and just becomes accepted behavior.

 

[Scooch]

Yet you watch the NBA game and see the players complain about every call that is or is not made and you see where all the vitriol towards referees comes from. Starts at the top works its way down and just becomes accepted behavior.

Well, ballplayers argue balls and strikes, and every WR in football thinks there is pass interference on every play. That's sports. It's been that way since the first day I started watching sports a million years ago.

I don't believe adults are screaming at teenage hockey refs because OBJ argues for pass interference.

And while I wouldn't hold up NBA officiating as anything good, it's still miles better than college.

 

[Deano]

Just another typical CBB game where flopping is rewarded and calls from officials standing a mile away are carried out with absurd conviction.

Didn't work for Oshae twice last night and IMHO both were charges.

 

[Shrmdougluvr]

I thought it was bad for both teams.

Yeah. Only the biggest SU-homer would have watched that game and thought this was a screw-job. At best, the officiating was inconsistent, but certainly SU had its fair share of calls that went its way.

 

[cusefan88]

The Marek charge was terrible. I had a decent baseline seat so saw the whole thing straight on. I screamed it was so bad.

 

[SoBeCuse]

Yeah. Only the biggest SU-homer would have watched that game and thought this was a screw-job. At best, the officiating was inconsistent, but certainly SU had its fair share of calls that went its way.

Plenty of homers here who will side with the “screw-job” lol. Don’t you worry.

 

[Alsacs]

The officiating was brutal in that game.

If you watched the game you would have seen it.
College refs have no clue how to call block/charges consistently.
They blow whistles prematurely on contact that isn’t a foul but they call it.

Yesterday those clown sucked. It wasn’t about screwing Syracuse those refs sucked.

 

[Milo1384]

fwiw, I officiate basketball and there is nothing in rule book that says a defender has to have their 'feet set' for it to be an offensive player control foul. The defender just needs to establish legal guarding position. so that defender can be moving left, right, backwards and straight up as long as they still have established legal guarding position..

 

[OttoMets]

It was even worse watching live. Some of those calls were mind boggling. I wish I knew how to embed photos but I managed to get one of a charge they called on Marek where you can clearly see the Wake defender didn’t have his feet set.

Same for him getting hit on the arm on the dunk he made. If they're not going to call that a foul, let's just let the three refs go, save a few bucks, and let the players decide the fouls.

 

[Jasoncuse]

Those refs were incredibly bad, both ways. Late calls from the clouds, obvious missed travels and the absolute worst I've ever seen the block/charges calls. The guy at midcourt was calling charges under the basket.

 

[Conrad13]

My son plays hockey. He's on a squirt-level travel team, which is 9 and 10 year olds. Often the refs for his games are a teenager working alongside an adult. It is appalling to see the vitriolic abuse that gets heaped on 16 year olds reffing a squirt hockey game. People should be ashamed of themselves, but of course they're not.

Completely agree about parents abusing refs. To lighten the mood, I'll tell you guys a story about my 12 year old's basketball game last weekend. I always swore that I'd never be one of those parents who yells at refs but when a kid on the other team blatantly traveled I blurted out "walk!" On the way back down the court one of the refs, an older guy, made eye contact with me and said, "You were right. I missed that one." A few plays later, one of the kids on our team took about four steps and he didn't blow his whistle. As he's running down the court, the ref smiles at me and says, "travel!" It was hilarious.

 

[Cheriehoop]

fwiw, I officiate basketball and there is nothing in rule book that says a defender has to have their 'feet set' for it to be an offensive player control foul. The defender just needs to establish legal guarding position. so that defender can be moving left, right, backwards and straight up as long as they still have established legal guarding position..

'In order to take a charge, the new rule will require a defensive player to be in legal guarding position before the player leaves the floor to pass or shoot. Additionally, the defending player is not allowed to move in any direction before contact occurs, except vertically to block a shot.'

NCAA changes charge-block rule and adds several experimental rules

 

[81South]

If there is so much money in college basketball why don’t they hire full time officials? Get them working year round and watching film...anything to get them better.

 

[kmart128]

Seems whenever there was a 50/50 call they gave the call to the team that was losing. Refs had no clue what is a charge or what wasn't. The one obvious charge was called a block on Brissett. Seems refs we're just guessing... There was a couple times where they blew the whistle. Didn't make a call and just looked at each other before calling it a charge. They had no clue what a charge and a block is

 

[Milo1384]

'In order to take a charge, the new rule will require a defensive player to be in legal guarding position before the player leaves the floor to pass or shoot. Additionally, the defending player is not allowed to move in any direction before contact occurs, except vertically to block a shot.'

NCAA changes charge-block rule and adds several experimental rules

I believe that has been updated since 2014 .. bc a primary defender can be moving and still take a player control foul.

An example, defender beats the dribbler/offensive player to the spot, establishes legal guarding position, and offensive player lowers shoulder and runs him over. It's an offensive player control foul (charge) . In this example, usually the defender is still moving left, right, or backwards while maintaining his legal guarding position.

 

[Fly Rodder]

His take is that the abusive atmosphere in high school sports towards refs, from both players and parents, causes a lot of the potential (ref)talent to leave before their careers take root

Heck, I umpired a little league game once when I was in HS ... never did it again.

 

[two3zone]

'In order to take a charge, the new rule will require a defensive player to be in legal guarding position before the player leaves the floor to pass or shoot. Additionally, the defending player is not allowed to move in any direction before contact occurs, except vertically to block a shot.'

NCAA changes charge-block rule and adds several experimental rules

So if a guy is moving a offensive player can punch the defender in the teeth and it's a foul on the defender?

 

[RF2044]

If there is so much money in college basketball why don’t they hire full time officials? Get them working year round and watching film...anything to get them better.

I think the main issue is that there are just too many games. It isn't just D1, but D2, D3, women's, etc. -- with numerous officials being required for each game, that would literally be thousands of refs.

 

[Cusefan0307]

I believe that has been updated since 2014 .. bc a primary defender can be moving and still take a player control foul.

An example, defender beats the dribbler/offensive player to the spot, establishes legal guarding position, and offensive player lowers shoulder and runs him over. It's an offensive player control foul (charge) . In this example, usually the defender is still moving left, right, or backwards while maintaining his legal guarding position.

It's the secondary defender that's the issue. They flop all the time. On Howard's charge the Wake player flopped after the ball went in the basket. They just need to do away with second defender charges.

 

[Milo1384]

It's the secondary defender that's the issue. They flop all the time. On Howard's charge the Wake player flopped after the ball went in the basket. They just need to do away with second defender charges.

agreed 100%

 

[Bayside44]

'In order to take a charge, the new rule will require a defensive player to be in legal guarding position before the player leaves the floor to pass or shoot. Additionally, the defending player is not allowed to move in any direction before contact occurs, except vertically to block a shot.'

NCAA changes charge-block rule and adds several experimental rules

That's nuts, gives the offensive player the ability to lower the shoulder or just run into a guy. FWIW the charge on Battle was exactly what Milo said.

 

[81South]

I think the main issue is that there are just too many games. It isn't just D1, but D2, D3, women's, etc. -- with numerous officials being required for each game, that would literally be thousands of refs.

What if you started with full time at the p5 level and see how it goes?

 

[RF2044]

What if you started with full time at the p5 level and see how it goes?

To be clear, officiating stinks at the collegiate level, and has for a LONG time. A big part of that is that the refs are part time, and that there is little that the NCAA can do to hold them accountable for the variance with which they operate.

At the NBA level, the officials are full time employees. When the league wants to implement rules changes or alter how certain calls are made at the macro level, they train the refs and then measure their performance against the new standard, holding them accountable. And when refs don't do what they are supposed to do, the league punishes them. That's a great way to ensure consistency.

But since the NCAA doesn't do that, you get a bunch of activist refs who are all over the map in terms of how they call games.

I like your idea--a lot--I just don't know if it is feasible.