The Zebras

[cu8493]

During an interview with one of the coaches earlier this season, the discussion turned to how referees are assigned to games. He said, as I recall, that all refs are drawn from a pool of referees who work college games throughout the midwest and assigned to games by the MVC office. While we do not pay the same as Big10 or Big12, we are not too far off. Also, in order to consistently draw referees that the league office wants, we pay a pretty good bonus for refs who work some minimum number of MVC games in a season. The coach feels that the combination of pay and bonus allows the MVC to compete with the bigger conferences for the higher quality referees, which is why you often see the same referees doing an MVC game as the Big10 and Big12 games. The coach's opinion was that that the league does a pretty good job of getting many of the better referees out there for MVC games.

[TrueBlueJay]

The thing I dont get about officiating any more is...there is no traveling when someone falls on the floor...you can slide 20 feet then "wrestle" with 3 guys diving for the ball and its always a jump ball.

Same with towards the end of a game, you can get two guys trapping someone and slap the heck out of them making making the offensive guy with the ball either cough up the ball with out a foul or tie them up for a jump ball, seldom a foul any more.

I

Sliding on the floor when you dive for the ball is not a travel and hasn't been for a number of years. It is only a travel if you try to get up with the ball.

[unipanther99]

The thing I dont get about officiating any more is...there is no traveling when someone falls on the floor...you can slide 20 feet then "wrestle" with 3 guys diving for the ball and its always a jump ball.

Same with towards the end of a game, you can get two guys trapping someone and slap the heck out of them making making the offensive guy with the ball either cough up the ball with out a foul or tie them up for a jump ball, seldom a foul any more.

I

I disagree with at least the first part. If someone is holding the ball and falls to the floor, it should be a travel, but it's usually never that simple. The ball usually gets knocked loose --- and you can't travel if you don't have possession of the basketball. There is no rule that says "sliding" on the floor constitutes a travel. If you are laying on the floor in possession of the basketball you can slide or move a little bit (can't roll completely over or attempt to get up).

And the last part, the "slapping" that occurs during trapping is obviously a judgement call. If the defender legally got to the spot first, he's entitled to it, from the floor to the ceiling. If arms contact arms, it's up to the official to judge who's space the contact occurred in. If the ball handler reaches into the defenders space, it's usually going to be a no call.

[musiccitybulldog]

Good opinions. I've seen a lot of variances. Seems stepping is difficult with your back on the ground.

[UE 71]

If officials called a game strictly according to the rules, at the end there would only be one player left standing on the court unless the last foul was a double foul. Be careful what you wish for.

[Ricardo del Rio]

There is one call, which drives me nuts.

A defender is set and his feet are firm on the floor and not moving. His arms are straight vertically.

An offensive player has his back to the defender. The offensive player jumps up, spins to face the basket, puts up a shot and falls into the defender.

The defender does not move his feet and he does not move his arms from straight up vertical.

A foul is called on the defender almost every time.

What happened to the rule of "verticality", that Dickie V. used to talk about all the time?

[cufan_mvcfan]

along the lines of ricardo,my one and only real problem is a foul being called on a straight vertical defensive player when an offensive player jumps directly into him before a shot attempt. It is almost comedic. The offensive player knows he will get the call every time. Most of the time, i wouldn't even consider it a "shot attempt" by the offensive player. He simply jumps right into the defensive player and throws his arms in the air. automatic two shots. everybody does it, annoying as hell.

[shoxrox]

Agreed. Totally annoying. It seems as if it's impossible to play defense when calls are made simply by contact initiated by the offensive player. It seems as if referees pay no attention to what the defender does at all and just lazily rewards the offensive player.

[cpacmel]

Completely and totally disagree.

The Valley gets high level guys that go deep into the tournament every year. Give me John Higgins, Scott Thornley, or Mark Whitehead anytime. Those three and a few others that consistently do games in this league to a solid consistent job.

Watch Big East games, those guys are intolerable.

BCPanther, good posts on this subject.

[unipanther99]

Agreed. Totally annoying. It seems as if it's impossible to play defense when calls are made simply by contact initiated by the offensive player. It seems as if referees pay no attention to what the defender does at all and just lazily rewards the offensive player.

Why do you think UNI flops so much?