Cal Makes Another Run at Officials on Call-In Show

[Joneslab]

Second time this week Cal has publicly talked about the refs. I think he's seen what we've all seen starting at Kansas: it's been a really bad run with a TON of bad calls. It might be the poorest sequence of games that I can remember as a UK fan back to back to back.

http://kentuckysportsradio.com/basketball-2/cal-preaches-confidence-on-his-call-in-show/

[Matt Dillon]

I wonder how long the SEC will let this go on?

[Westtncat]

How much of this does he believe and how much is trying to soften them up for the tourney by getting in their head? That being said, I hate when coaches blame the refs. Fans do it all the time because thats what we do but after that I just think it looks desperate when a coach does it.

[Blue Heaven]

I normally would agree with you but there have been a rash of terrible calls lately. Some have been game changers. The Poythress walk and tripping calls just took the cake for me.

[lilproUK98]

I have been maybe.more vocal than anyone on here concerning the officiating.

I think with Cal it mostly goes back to the Kansas game, the way literally any contact at all and sometimes no contact (Willis on the back call) were fouls on UK. The way that game.was officiated decided that game. The T on Humpries very likely, decided that game. The South Carolina debacle with sermons was just the.last straw with Cal I think. Road games have always been tough when the refs start making anticipatory calls and calls influenced by the crowd. There are some wildly inconsistently called games.right now. All coaches and players want is consistency, and to just not miss obvious calls. You could even say this goes back to the Wisconsin missed shot clock violation that may have cost UK that game....

Cal has always been hard on the refs, especially when they aren't calling contact the same on both ends. That's understandable IMO.

I think overall the quality of officiating and.consistency has gone down hill for a long long time. There have always been.missed calls and there always will be. Using technology and holding referees accountable have to be at the forefront of improving the way games are.called. consistency and common sense has to come into play. A long hard serious look at the whole process of becoming a ref, accountability, and adjusting the rules to where they are more black and white and.less subjective are things that need to be looked at. Overall it seems that there are a core group of maybe 6-10 officials that are just not cut out to be officials for various reasons IMO. The old adage of the best officials are the ones you never notice should hold true. Very rarely is it the case that that happens anymore.

[TrueblueCATfan]

I second what Will said......it has been really bad since the Kansas game....I think the Tennessee game in Knoxville was the worst for me

[Joneslab]

I agree that it goes back to Kansas, and some of that spilled over to South Carolina.

I generally think the officiating is better than most fans do, but from late January on this season we've really seen some strange and maddening things.

[KevinHall]

Also go back to what I said in other threads. These guys work too many games and they are wearing down by this time of the season. Its only natural when you are working in a different town five nights a week that you would wear down physically and make you not as good as you can be.

[justford]

Just a couple of random thoughts. We are seeing more games being played than ever before. More games require more officials. Are the officials being hired for college games not ready or not have sufficient enough experience? Some of the worst officials are the experienced ones so maybe that has nothing to do with it.

Maybe Lighthouse can explain how the hiring process works to become a college official.

[Lighthouse]

First, it costs very little to go to an officials clinic and see for yourselves how the process works. No matter where you live, there will be a HS of College clinic for new officials. If all you do is go watch, it just might change your opinion some. But for Kentucky Fans, and our beloved Cats, not so much.

The training begins at the HS level. Officials go to a local clinic, the one here in Louisville is the best in the country. They have 2 days of classroom instruction where they cover the rules and basic floor coverage, both 2 & 3 man. Then they go onto the court and usually officiate about 10 minutes of actual game time. They are filmed and shadowed by experienced officials. Their next step is to sit down with the shadowing official, watch themselves on film and go over mistakes. That process is repeated not only for 2-3 more days in that clinic, but for the next 3 years. The best of the group will be selected by the local association, according to attrition within the association. They will start out working Middle School games and maybe a freshman game their first year. They are evaluated by several retired officials like me, and by those evaluations move up to JV. They will, from the beginning, work girls and boys games. It usually takes a minimum of 5 years before they move up to Varsity.

Then, they will be exposed to College Clinics, usually associated with an AAU camp or tournament. For example, the AAU tournament here in Louisville put on by Eddie Ford, has been used by The Great Lakes Valley Conference to recruit new officials. Usually, there are no prior qualifications to work the tournament, and if an official catches the eye of the supervisor, they could be selected to work "College Ball." These tournaments occur all over the country, some more visible than others.

Herein lies what I perceive as the problem with college officiating. With no prior qualifications to work the clinics, a good young official can and has been selected to work college ball. Now that official is good, but because they have never worked a varsity HS game, they just don't have the experience to be where they are. We all have egos, and when you think your better than your experience says you are, that's a bad situation about to happen.

This usually doesn't happen with D1 conference supervisors, as they are more selective and require much more experience then mids, DII or below. Jake Bell, supervisor of SEC officials, has done a good job in bringing in new officials. On one exhibition game this year at Rupp, he assigned 3 rookies. I was there, and it was so obvious they were rookies, but that's how they get exposed to this new level. I saw 2 of them this year at Rupp, but they were assigned with 2 experienced officials.

I know this is long, but there's no other way to answer your question.

[justford]

Excellent job of explaining the process. So maybe there is no obvious reason for the bad calls (or perceived) bad calls other than human error. Thank you

[Blue Heaven]

I tend to side with the human error argument somewhat. Even so, sometimes I wonder just what in the heck those guys are seeing. Could it just be coincidence that we have had a ton of bad calls against us lately? Yes. But sometimes TOO MUCH coincidence has me thinking certain people have an agenda. Or a betting interest.

[Joneslab]

I think it has to do with the fact that we're a jumpshooting team mostly. Aggressors tend to get calls; you can usually find our guys playing out on the perimeter. Even the big guys (Willis, Skal). So in that way it makes sense.

But it also has to do with the fact that the road games were weighted toward the end of the season. You don't get great calls on the road. That was as true in the peach basket era as it is now. Now that the road gauntlet is over the tide may turn a little.

[Lighthouse]

I tend to side with the human error argument somewhat. Even so, sometimes I wonder just what in the heck those guys are seeing. Could it just be coincidence that we have had a ton of bad calls against us lately? Yes. But sometimes TOO MUCH coincidence has me thinking certain people have an agenda. Or a betting interest.

Or, the Officials (when in proper position) have a much better look at plays than Fans, Coaches and Announcers in attendance do. And even those of us watching on TV, only have close to the same view until we watch the replays. An official only has a split second to make a call, but we see plays over and over again, and we watch every game through Blue tinted glasses. I'm a Kentucky Fan, why do you think I wait a day or two to evaluate the officials? Because during the games I'm yelling at the officials like everybody else. Some of you accuse me of defending the officials. All I'm trying to do is explain why they call what they do, and if they're wrong I say so. Are Officials perfect? No, but in all the stats of a game, they have a much higher percent of perfection than any player or Coach.

[wildcatdon]

Human error sure is a loose term. How do you explain that walking call against Poythress at Vandy? how do you explain all of the walking that doesn't get called when guys are making a handoff and take too many steps before delivering the ball? Or the walking that doesn't get called when guys constantly switch their pivot feet after receiving a pass and most of the time they aren't even pressured? I would call this two things. Blatant disregard for the rules or you just don't know basketball that well and you don't know what walking is. Officiating has made college ball unwatchable for me. If it wasn't for the cats, I would never turn it on.