RollingThunder

It did seem like private schools in Jackson were better than usual this year, was wondering if that was why Jackson schools were down.

Fairview has won 5 out of 6 district championships and been to substate 3x, state this year during that stretch and were missing 2 starters, one being their best player, at state. They've done it with different groups of kids. They return 3 starters including their two leading scorers. They'll be the favorite in district 11 but Creekwood always has good shooters and Sycamore plays very hard and physical.

I was in attendance for a few days of the state tournament and watched the rest of the games on NFHS. In some games the officiating was really poor - not in the sense that it changed the outcome of the game, I don't think that is fair to say. But it significantly lowered the quality of basketball played. Here are some of my biggest observations: Communication - a number of referees refuse to communicate what happened, especially to coaches. One coach said in a post game press conference he was never given an explanation for why technical fouls were issued. There needs to be mutual respect and the ability to communicate, there is at every other level Post play - block/charge calls are the most difficult calls in basketball but there were MANY instances where all the defender does is fall down...I can think of 3 or 4 instances specifically where the offensive player dribbled away from the basket, the defender pushes off and falls down, and offensive foul is called. We will never see decent post play return with that type of officiating Inconsistency/Chaotic calls - in some games there would be 10 fouls called in first 3 min, none rest of half, and it would be sporadic. 3rd foul called on team's best player who was on the other end and none of the officials could correct. By the second half, every time a whistle blew all 10 players stopped and looked at the ref because they literally had no idea what the call would be. There was no consistency or predictability and in 4 or 5 games you could see some of the best players stop playing defense because there was no way to know what you could or couldn't do. In a few end of game situations with one team pressing there were crazy calls and not one but like 4 or 5 There's 350+ schools in the state, refereeing is difficult, thankless, and not worth what they get paid. But this is the state tournament, the best of the best, which makes it clear that some of these things are what the TSSAA wants and rewards. The issue to me is leadership - these refs could make the games much better for the kids and the fans if they were trained and under the leadership of someone that's done it in college and understands the need for mutual respect, letting the players play, and its about the kids.