Officiating

[Guest StraightBogey]

How would everyone rate the referees this year? List the district in which you watch the most games. I'm just wondering where the good officials seem to be. Yes, there are good officials as well as bad.

[LCborn]

In district 4AA it seems to be considerably worse than last year. I saw a game in which the official tossed the ball to a player out of bounds. The player dropped the ball. It rolled into play, the player reached out, rolled it back to the end line, picked it up, and threw it in to re-start play. Pardon me, isn't that a violation? The official was standing right there, watching. It's one thing to miss the judgement calls, but rules violations like that should be easy to call.

 

Also, the officials I've seen have been very spotty about calling reaching and slapping around the perimeter and over-the-back inside. One LC girl was slapped hard enough in the face (while dribbling outside) to cause a nose bleed. The official didn't call the slap, but did make her leave the game because of the blood. What's up with that? Even if you play "no blood, no foul" that should have been a foul.

[TnBball]

In district 10-AAA officating has been horrible. I cant remember the last time refs have been so horrible..I've watched alot of high school basketball this year and the only game I saw that was good was Last saturday night at Creekwood vs Dickson co..Those two officials were the best I've seen especially the younger guy from the Murfreesboro area.

[LCborn]

Here's another story from district 4AA. In tonight's Kingston-LC game, a post player popped out in the corner to challenge a shot. The shot went up, and the post turned and screened the shooter out. Nothing really extraordinary, the shooter wasn't knocked down or even hit very hard. Just a strong blockout, like post players everywhere are taught. The ref whistled a foul. Nothing wrong with that, it probably was too much contact on the perimeter. But then the ref threatened the post player, saying that it was a cheap shot and if he ever did it again, he (the ref) would put him on the bench for the rest of the game. Then, the ref tried to give the shooter 2 shots, even though the foul was clearly committed and blown long after the shot was away (the post allowed the shooter to land after the shot, before he made contact). Luckily, the ref was overruled by his partners. I think the ref was out of line, both for the lecture (and threat) and for trying to enforce an inappropriate penalty for the foul.

 

I have noticed, though, that some refs single out strong post players. Any coincidence that these refs are usually small fellas, like the guy in my story? I thought refs were supposed to enforce the rules: it would be better if they didn't try to be equalizers, but just fair judges of those rules.

[SouthTnLooker]

the district 10-a referees are the absolute worst in the state!

[themagicrooster]

4A officiating has been terrible...not so much lop-sided..just terrible...sometimes it's like being at a football game! with only close fouls being called and major stuff being overlooked, the officials should be ashamed...they pay these guys?.f9d!!!

[marcvols]

In my opinion, there are some problems with the officiating in the state of Tennessee. I have been involved in high school basketball in Ohio, Kentucky, Georgia, and Tennessee. I have observed some obvious differences between Tennessee and the other three states. First of all, I believe the majority of officials to be hardworking at what they do. Some of the problems I notice in Tennessee are:

 

 

1. Aggressive attitude toward players and coaches (trying to be controllers of the game vs. in control of the game).

 

2. Officials taking comments personally instead of in the context of the game.

 

3. Worrying about extraneous variables (i.e. crowd) instead of the game.

 

 

I believe that alot of these problems would be avoided and the level of officiating improved if the state implemented a rating system FROM THE COACHES. This is done in other states successfully. In order to work in the postseason, minimal rating averages must be attained; the minimums increase as the level of tournament play increases. This is also a personal pride issue, as most people want to be recognized as successful as possible. Most importantly, the coaches' rating system fosters a very professional relationship between officials and coaches; there is an increased level of accountability to the people the officials are serving (coaches and players).

The flipside is that most officiating organizations will say this would make recruiting new officials even harder; I don't buy it, every profession should welcome accountability to those they are serving.

[CoachF]

The officials in the Nashville area have been pretty good. We played down in Chatanooga and the officials were beyond bad. In fact, they would be run out of the Nashville Jr Pro leagues.

[bballbruiser]

It's good to see that 12a is not the only place with poor calling. I believe it gets worse every year. I agree that the refs have an agressive attitude towards players, coaches, and the crowd. I know it is a difficult job and I would not want to be in their shoes but most of these guys seem to be on the court for the power trip and not for the kids. Give the kids a break. They are not responsible for their fans or any other problem you have with their school.

[mkhhawk]

I can echo a lot of the comments on this thread. I really wonder if having 3 referees is a positive or negative. As a player or coach, you must adjust your game to how loosely or tightly a game is called. Either way, you look for CONSISTENCY throughout the game. How many times have you watched a game where the post players are engaged in a physical battle for each rebound only to have a referee call a touch foul somewhere else??? Then soon after a make up foul is called to even things out. By adding that third referee your are, in effect, adding another opinion and making the consistency you ask for so much harder to achieve. Also, having three referees dilutes the talent pool of the good referees, with so many games being played on Tuesday and Friday nights.

I have been told from an official before that they are evaluated more on being in the correct position to make a call then on the actual call that they make. Being in the right place does allow them to get a better view of things BUT should it be the primary emphasis of their evaluations?? I think there are more important issues such as: 1) Making the correct charge versus blocking call. 2)Does reaching over a player on a rebound constitute a foul, irregardless of contact? 3)Jump stops are a part of the game now, are we all seeing it the same? The above are all areas that should be addresed and made more objectively and consistent than what we are getting now. Adding that 3rd referee is not allowing that.

[Edited by mkhhawk on 2-2-03 2:28P]

 

[CHHS72]

A couple of years ago our school played several teams from that get referees from the Morristown district. They only assigned two refs per game. My conclusion is that three are better. With two, if you have one that is either terrible or is biaised he has too much influence on the game.

 

In the Johnson City district the referees generally are hard working. They are better than most. The Morristown district is terrible, not only with judgement but also integrity. We went to Rhea County and the officiating was unusual at best. I do not know what district they came from but I am glad we play were we do.

 

With that said, we have some that just do not know what they are doing. They have no definition of charge/block. They just choose one. Too many baskets are wiped off with charging calls. They allow a weak side player to drift over while the layup shooter is in the air and then call a charge on the shooter. Sometimes the foul is called after the ball has gone through the net. In those cases the basket should count, and if a charge/push is called for then assess that penalty. If they would stop wiping off all of the baskets then weak side players would stop moving over and players would stop flopping. Most of the time the foul should be on the defense in those cases.

 

The major problem is that a lot of them all on an ego trip. We have one that calls a least one technical in every game he calls. I call him Mr. T. All of the coaches and teams complain about him. He is not the only ego manic, just the one with the thinnest skin.

[mofototo50]

D2 West has been bad. When a ref ask a fan at halftime if he was still mad, about a call, you know something was worng w/ that call, there have been many tohers for instance, Harding had their 4 best players all with 4 fouls with about 8 minutes to go in the game.