officiating

[Indian]

Am I the only one already seeing things as worse this year? At the tournament over the last few days I watched a lot of games, boys and girls, and most I was not pulling for either team. In nearly every games things nearly got out of hand due to the referees' unwillingness to call a foul, ignore taunting, or not call things until the score got out of hand so they could claim calls were even if questioned on it. More than 1 team had a player hurt, and some teams retaliated-some subtle, some not subtle at all. If they'd rather be Black Friday shopping, don't show up to ref the game. Again most of the games I did not care which team won.

[bw3]

We typically see this at the beginning of each season. These guys are all hopped up on their egos and points of emphasis. Things typically settle down after Christmas and we're back to the same bad officiating instead of terrible by the end of the year. HA!

[Metroman]

I saw something interesting the other day that I have never seen before.  There was a player on the bench that received a technical for having their shirt untucked.  The player had not been in the game at all and had not said anything to the official.  I went to the rule book and it stated that a player may not remove his/her shirt or pants, but nothing about a technical for it being untucked.  Anybody ever heard of this before?

[gwh]

Am I the only one already seeing things as worse this year? At the tournament over the last few days I watched a lot of games, boys and girls, and most I was not pulling for either team. In nearly every games things nearly got out of hand due to the referees' unwillingness to call a foul, ignore taunting, or not call things until the score got out of hand so they could claim calls were even if questioned on it. More than 1 team had a player hurt, and some teams retaliated-some subtle, some not subtle at all. If they'd rather be Black Friday shopping, don't show up to ref the game. Again most of the games I did not care which team won.

Be glad you were not at Cannon county's Thanksgiving classic. They were some of the worst officiated games I have ever seen. Did anyone else notice this and I wasn't even pulling for a specific team.

[wingman10]

bump

[Belmontcrew]

I enjoy coming to these boards and reading many of the topics and discussions. It's like listening to the sports talk show but never calling to talk. I have never posted until until I saw this on officiating.

 

It really struck a cord with me. First I want to say that officiating basketball is a very difficult task...I believe so more than any other sport. I have officiated a couple of scrimmage games for my daughter's travel team and frankly would never care to do it again.

 

I think we play girls basketball at a very high level in Tennessee. We have travel teams that excell Nationally at many different age groups. My daughter has played in several different states...KY, OH, GA, and FL. I must say, the state of Tennessee overall has the worst group of Officials for anywhere that we have played. Some of what I see boarders on malpractice. They miss calls, they make the wrong call, and some truly appear to be apathetic to the whole event. Some are confrontational. We have too many inconsistencies in the flow of a game. I think most players can adjust thier play to how an officiating crew is calling a game. Unfortunately, it's difficult to make adjustments when a foul on one end of the court goes unnoticed on the other end. I hate to see coaches and players put so much time and effort into something they love, to have poor officiating have an impact on the outcome of the game.

 

I am not sure how you remedy the situation. I don't know that the TSSAA really cares, or even if they do, are there any resources in place to make changes. I am not sure what, if any, training these men and women need to do to become an official or become better officials. I do know that I have never seen a single instance where an officiating crew was being reviewed and graded at a basketball game. Basically, do you have someone watching how you do your job? Is there any accountability? How do you get better at something when you never have an outside source telling you what you need to correct.

 

I think we do have some great officials in the state, there is just not enough of them to go around. I even appreciate those that may not be great, but they are trying to do their best and are engaged in the game. It's pretty easy to spot those that don't give a dang, and we have too many of them. Of the three officials I see at most games, there is always one that is just not capable of doing a good job.

 

On the other side, I also believe that we as fans and parents can make things worse. I certainly at times can put myself in this boat and at times I just need to shut up. We go into games expecting bad calls....and when they happen we yell, and scream, and fuss, and stomp our feet...and it has not changed a single call yet. We need to be better fans for our schools and our kids.

 

But I sure do wish we could have some games that afterword, all I could say about the officials would be "I hardly noticed they were there".

[UTRok]

I agree that basketball officiating is vey difficult but why are some considered very good and others considered not even qualified to be there. We played at the Watertown Classic over Thanksgiving the one game had a very capable crew and the 2nd game two of the three were terrible. I have officiated myself and know how hard it is most people consider it important. I think at the high school level it is real important to be qualified as well as be good at it. I do not know what the answer is or how TSSAA can be approached about it but it really needs addressed.

[anotherback]

Most have a problem with Homer refs. And unfortunately I've seen it in a lot of areas but one thing I've noticed in our area so far this year is they are getting older and slower. They aren't even in position to make some calls and it's the same refs from 20 plus years ago some used to be excellent but with age comes bad eye sight and slow movement. Many ar ed in their 50 and some early 60 . It is worse when you know what places you can expect your best players to get in foul trouble early. In happens truth.

[Melton07]

The officials are doing the best job that they can, the issue is that they are under paid by a state governing body (T$$AA) and most officials just aren't willing to give up family and job time to go make a few extra bucks.

In 7A and 7AA there will be lots of district games with only 2 officials. There are a few reasons for the numbers of officials to be "down" this year but mostly its because the TSSAA won't shell out extra $ and give officials a raise.So guys have made the decision not to work. Coaches are having to work around the officiating staffs availabilty and move game dates/times in order to get 3 person crews.

 

Till we raise the pay and get some of the veteran officials to come back, our officiating will struggle.

[BigBoy10]

I totally disagree that officials are doing the best they can do. Some are, sure. We have about 10 good officials in the mid state. But there is a large group that is apathetic. But I think what you said about the pay is the contributing factor. If I get paid the same whether I do a great job or a terrible job, and no one is going to reprimand me for doing a bad job... where's the motivation? The apathy is worse in girls games! The pay needs to be based on merit, evaluations and job performance just like anything else. Otherwise the problem will never be solved.

 

My issue is that they have have too much influence on the game and zero accountability. They can take the best players out of the game, toss a coach, toss fans, and yet they dont have to answer to anyone. All the tssaa cares about is what they have on and their mechanics when they report to the scorers table. Accuracy of calls isn't even part of the equation. It's sad. The kids work their butt off, year round in many cases, and some schmuck in stripes can end their season just because a fan or coach rubs them the wrong way on a particular night. It's just not right!

[TheRealTruth]

I totally disagree that officials are doing the best they can do. Some are, sure. We have about 10 good officials in the mid state. But there is a large group that is apathetic. But I think what you said about the pay is the contributing factor. If I get paid the same whether I do a great job or a terrible job, and no one is going to reprimand me for doing a bad job... where's the motivation? The apathy is worse in girls games! The pay needs to be based on merit, evaluations and job performance just like anything else. Otherwise the problem will never be solved.

 

My issue is that they have have too much influence on the game and zero accountability. They can take the best players out of the game, toss a coach, toss fans, and yet they dont have to answer to anyone. All the tssaa cares about is what they have on and their mechanics when they report to the scorers table. Accuracy of calls isn't even part of the equation. It's sad. The kids work their butt off, year round in many cases, and some schmuck in stripes can end their season just because a fan or coach rubs them the wrong way on a particular night. It's just not right!

Excellent post! I will also add that there is no criteria for training and the TSSAA does not provide the training or pay for their training. If an official wants to be better, they have to go out and pay for their own training.

[Indian]

I got to watch the film of a recent game and it was clear the refs were calling fouls on one side to keep pace with those being called (rightfully so) on a very aggressive team. One team's main post fouled out in the third, only 2 of 5 looked like good calls after several rewinds.