And people wonder why it's hard to find people willing to ref any more.....

I started this post to raise a question about how officiating can improve. There is always room for improvement. There are some really good refs and some really bad refs. The officials that are professional are highly respected by coaches.

I have watched 20+ high school basketball games this season. In every game there is at least a quarter that is dominated by the referees, the whistle blows every trip down. It seems like many of the refs are anticipating what will happen instead of reacting.

 

Maybe KHSAA should go to two refs.

 

I started this post to raise a question about how officiating can improve. There is always room for improvement. There are some really good refs and some really bad refs. The officials that are professional are highly respected by coaches.

 

Looks like the original post was about refs taking over a game and moving back to two officials.

Let me start by saying there’s no one who appreciates a well-timed nuts and bolts cheer from a raucous student section as much as me, but I’ve given this some thought and have come up with a few possible solutions.

 

1) The Six-Ref Crew

-Two officials on opposite ends of the baseline, two officials at opposite foul line extended, two officials, opposite, one step inside the division line.

-No “letting them play.” Every “ticky-tack” contact is called, every pinky nail below the equator of the ball is called, every hand thrown up in the air in disagreement with the call is penalized.

-Every call must be confirmed by at least three other officials. So a call made table-side on the baseline would be presented the long way around to the table:

 

Baseline-Opposite,(BL-O) Free Throw-Opposite,(FT-O) Division Line-Opposite,(DL-O) Division Line-Table.(DLT)

 

-Any disagreement, the clock is reset and the play is redone until a basket is scored, a stop is made, or a more agreeable call is made.

 

Benefits- Consistency; no officials in rotation, as they each have one sixth of the court or half-court in their area; officials only run half the distance of the court.

 

Drawbacks- Expensive; Five hour games

 

2) The No-Ref Crew

-Players call their own fouls and violations and determine the result of each.

 

Benefits- Players have total control of the game; decrease in flopping; It’s the most similar to how most players on the court will play following their high school careers; Entertaining trash talk

 

Drawbacks- Trash talk gone wrong; “ticky-tack” fouls reach all-time highs; no one for players, coaches, or fans to blame for losses.

 

3) The All-Ref Crew

-Similar to the No-Ref Crew, except every person who enters the gym gets a whistle.

-Every call must be voted upon by everyone in attendance, including coaches and players.

-In the event of a disagreement, a re-do will begin with five seconds added to the clock.

 

Benefits- Better attendance home and away; everyone plays a part;

 

Drawbacks- hearing loss;

 

The way I see it, these are our only options. Something must change!

Let me start by saying there’s no one who appreciates a well-timed nuts and bolts cheer from a raucous student section as much as me, but I’ve given this some thought and have come up with a few possible solutions.

 

1) The Six-Ref Crew

-Two officials on opposite ends of the baseline, two officials at opposite foul line extended, two officials, opposite, one step inside the division line.

-No “letting them play.” Every “ticky-tack” contact is called, every pinky nail below the equator of the ball is called, every hand thrown up in the air in disagreement with the call is penalized.

-Every call must be confirmed by at least three other officials. So a call made table-side on the baseline would be presented the long way around to the table:

 

Baseline-Opposite,(BL-O) Free Throw-Opposite,(FT-O) Division Line-Opposite,(DL-O) Division Line-Table.(DLT)

 

-Any disagreement, the clock is reset and the play is redone until a basket is scored, a stop is made, or a more agreeable call is made.

 

Benefits- Consistency; no officials in rotation, as they each have one sixth of the court or half-court in their area; officials only run half the distance of the court.

 

Drawbacks- Expensive; Five hour games

 

2) The No-Ref Crew

-Players call their own fouls and violations and determine the result of each.

 

Benefits- Players have total control of the game; decrease in flopping; It’s the most similar to how most players on the court will play following their high school careers; Entertaining trash talk

 

Drawbacks- Trash talk gone wrong; “ticky-tack” fouls reach all-time highs; no one for players, coaches, or fans to blame for losses.

 

3) The All-Ref Crew

-Similar to the No-Ref Crew, except every person who enters the gym gets a whistle.

-Every call must be voted upon by everyone in attendance, including coaches and players.

-In the event of a disagreement, a re-do will begin with five seconds added to the clock.

 

Benefits- Better attendance home and away; everyone plays a part;

 

Drawbacks- hearing loss;

 

The way I see it, these are our only options. Something must change!

 

One more option to consider might be every play is subject to video replay. If any ref blows the whistle all 2/3 (whichever) huddle at the scorer's mandated video screen to carefully scrutinize what generated the whistle and ensure the call's accuracy. Perhaps each ref could wear a video cam to provide multiple viewpoints. Or, maybe we just trust our present refs to do the very best they can and hope they learn each time they know they've made an error.

One more option to consider might be every play is subject to video replay. If any ref blows the whistle all 2/3 (whichever) huddle at the scorer's mandated video screen to carefully scrutinize what generated the whistle and ensure the call's accuracy. Perhaps each ref could wear a video cam to provide multiple viewpoints. Or, maybe we just trust our present refs to do the very best they can and hope they learn each time they know they've made an error.

 

I like those ideas a lot. I would add to them, a press conference following the game, where officials explain each of their calls as it relates to the rule book, as well as a published game report as observed by each region’s evaluator.

 

But your last sentence... Easily one of the most absurd things I’ve read on BGP.

Looks like the officials are dominating this thread, this thread reminds me of some games I've watched.

An official gets his feelings hurt by being questioned over a call he then proceeds to dominate the game with call after call or post after post in this situation.

This simply boils down to the culture, until the culture changes it's hopeless.

Fans and Coach’s expect officials to be perfect then get better. I’ve seen officials miss calls but I’ve never seen officials cheat. I’ve seen players miss free throws and I’ve never seen officials yell at players. I’ve seen coach’s not call a timeout when opposition is on a 12-0 run and the officials didn’t yell at the coach to call time out. At the end of the day, officials need to realize that they must work to get better and players need to practice to get better. It’s also important that fans need to realize that this state has lost over 800 officials in the last 5 years. Why?? Because they get verbally abused by the media, the fans and the coach’s. Until this changes, we will never see referee associations grow. Way more critics then officials. It’s the society we live in. Entitlement!!!

Edited January 19, 20197 yr by sidelinereporter

Looks like the officials are dominating this thread, this thread reminds me of some games I've watched.

An official gets his feelings hurt by being questioned over a call he then proceeds to dominate the game with call after call or post after post in this situation.

This simply boils down to the culture, until the culture changes it's hopeless.

Just because people disagree with you doesn’t make them referees. This board is about discussion, not about only allowing agreement.

I never said everyone on here is a referee but to me it's obvious some referees are posting on this thread. I have said there are some good officials and some bad ones. With that being said if we were to go back to two officials you could drop the bottom third back to JV games.

I also read a post saying they have never seen a referee cheat, let me make this analogy there are bad in every walk of life. There are cheating preachers, cops, coaches, doctors, lawyers and yes referees. If you don't believe that I don't think you are being realistic. I truly want to find a solution and help the game that most of Ky loves.

I never said everyone on here is a referee but to me it's obvious some referees are posting on this thread. I have said there are some good officials and some bad ones. With that being said if we were to go back to two officials you could drop the bottom third back to JV games.

I also read a post saying they have never seen a referee cheat, let me make this analogy there are bad in every walk of life. There are cheating preachers, cops, coaches, doctors, lawyers and yes referees. If you don't believe that I don't think you are being realistic. I truly want to find a solution and help the game that most of Ky loves.

No one said that you said everyone was a referee. What you actually said is very clearly quoted in my post.

I never assumed everyone that disagrees with me is an official I did assume some officials are posting on this. Do you have an opinion about this thread or just about the things I post?

I never assumed everyone that disagrees with me is an official I did assume some officials are posting on this. Do you have an opinion about this thread or just about the things I post?

As a moderator of this board, I make sure dialogue stays open and on topic or threads get shut down. That’s the majority of my interest in this thread.

 

I see see both sides of the 2 vs. 3 referee argument. I know that it’s challenging for smaller schools to pay the cost, but I also feel that officiating (rules being followed) is better with three officials.

 

I believe that most officials want to do a good job and try their best. And man, do they have a hard job! I couldn’t do it, that’s for sure.

I agree with most of what you say and most officials try to do their best. I also think it can be better than it is. We just have to figure it out.