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Thursday, February 28, 2008
Officials are like yo-yos,
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The better team won at Duke Wednesday night, and that’s not exactly a bold statement.
But this game was a mess in its own way not for the way it was played (roughly, at times very roughly), but for the way it was officiated relative to Georgia Tech’s last game. Or the game before that. Or the game before that.
Tech’s sports information department reports that Matt Causey, who suffered a mild concussion on the final play of the first half (he returned in the second) is feeling well this morning, no headaches, etc.
He wasn’t the only one to take a shot in that game. Players on both teams were bounced around.
And it should surprise nobody that Tech was called for 25 fouls. The Jackets came in averaging 23, eighth-most in the nation out of 328 Division I teams. Tech is aggressive, and everybody who knows anything about the Yellow Jackets knows that. Opposing coaches say it all the time.
There were times, though, when it seemed like officials would rather choke on their whistles than blow them. Duke had five fouls called against it in the first 26-plus minutes and took 18 free throws before Tech took one.
Officials made up some of the difference over the final 13 minutes or so, as Duke finished with 15.
But my beef is less about the disparity in fouls (a difference of 10 on the road is not over glaring), and more about how there is almost no way to predict what to expect in a game with regards to how it is going to be called relative to others.
The ACC uses some of the same officials who work games in multiple conferences, but those officials rotate in and out with each other rather than sticking together in three-man crews. There is no consistency in crew constitution, or, perhaps somewhat consequently, the way games are mediated.
Tech coach Paul Hewitt once upon a time (or twice, or maybe more, actually) railed more loudly about officiating. He’s no longer so outspoken about specifics, much to the disdain of at least one Tobacco Road writer who after Paul’s news conference lamented his inability to goad Hewitt into griping about what happened in Cameron Indoor Stadium.
But he’s not going to stay completely quiet, either. I don’t think he, or other coaches, should when the net result playing out before our eyes is one game after another officiated in red, then blue, then green, and so on.
This ebb and flow of style is dictated for sure by the styles and dispositions of teams on given nights, but perhaps moreso by the makeup of crews and what may be a relative lack of accountability among them.
These guys work three, four, maybe five games a week, and travel all over to do it. How often do their moods affect their work? How are they changed by the fact they work with different officials each time out? How often, unless there is an egregious misapplication of rules, are they called before a governing body of some sort to account for their interpretations on a game-by-game basis?
Again, this is not about a specific call or non-call.
It’s about some level of consistency being sought. Officials are like little fiefdoms. They all have their styles, yet they change nightly based on who they work with. And tell me Ted Valentine ever answers to anybody. That guy never saw a TV camera he didn’t seek to wind up in front of. That mess last week where he T’d Georgia coach Dennis Felton for asking where the coach’s box was on the baseline at Vanderbilt’s Memorial Gymnasium was absurd.
“You get used to it, and you understand that’s how it is. You have to adjust,” Hewitt said of the game-to-game variations. “With that said, I’ve been a long-time advocate of the NCAA taking over the officiating program to bring some uniformity to it, but we got the best officials in the country. We have the best officials in the country, but is there a variation from game to game. Sure.
“If there was anything I would do to help them, I would adopt the Major League baseball philosophy and have the same crews work together all the time so they know each other. Also, teams would know how certain teams call games [and have an idea what to expect]. It’s up to both teams to adjust.”
What an idea, the pursuit of uniformity in officiating!
Sure, there would still be some difference in one game to the next, just as umpires have different strike zones.
But pitchers and hitters at least go into MLB games with a clue about what to expect, whether the zone is going to be drum tight or loose.
In college basketball, it’s a guessing game based not on any one member of the officiating crew, but how they’ll mesh — or not — on a given night.
That stinks.
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