It's difficult to see such a flawed product and understand how much money the NCAA makes every year giving us the same flawed product.
Even if they weren't paid, they should be held accountable. As I heard earlier this year about the new 'interpretations' of the rules - the younger refs are sticking to the new rules because they want to get games in the tourney, but the older ones don't worry too much about enforcing the new rule interpretations because they know they will get the call to do the tourney. Where is the accountability to do your job?
I'll be the first to agree that officiating is an inexact science. And sometimes calls get kicked, and while it's unfortunate, there always have been and always will be those calls. It's a fact of life, and inherent to the nature of games in which officials are required. They're never going to be perfect, even if for no other reason than one fan's perfect will differ from another's. Most every Duke fan out there still thinks Tony Greene got the call right. So who's to say what was right or wrong? TV announcers and former coaches and players routinely prove that they don't know jack about rules and interpretations.
That being said, television is seductive, leading all who watch to believe they saw what really happened. However countless times we've seen that replays are in fact, inconclusive. Last night's 4 minute monument to peregrination at the end of the Louisville game is only the most recent case in point. Moreover, what the TV shows and what the ref saw are quite often two different things. Sometimes
quite different. But believe this, I've watched games that other fans here are watching, and seen calls I thought were good calls, while the faithful commence to caviling and gnashing of teeth such that one would think it was the rape of the Sabine women. Now I know I've spoken to the TV effect, but I'm watching the same feed the others are.
So since referees are a.) necessary, b.) can't please everyone, and c.) will err, the only thing they can really do is be consistent in what they'll call and what they won't. For there's often a difference between what a rule states as written and how it's applied in practice.
Fans are also interesting. The same bunch that thinks their blue-eyed boy hitting 38% from the arc is a star, despite going 2-11 one game and 4-6 the next, are the sames who don't understand why refs aren't 100% correct 100% of the time. I mean geez, everyone here has missed an uncontested lay-up. I read a quote once where a pundit observed, "The average fan is some guy who sits up in row 68, drinks half a dozen beers through the game, bitches that the refs suck, and then can't find his car in the parking lot. (I love that one!
)
And, my old friend, there are things I'll tell you personally that I won't put up here because it would cause apoplexy on a massive scale across the board. We'll have that conversation, too. I've got a wedding in Boston this October. And if I can make it all fit, I'll bring some
real beer, too.
