If this was your first taste of 8th region refs you better hope it was your last. There is a couple of good ones and the rest are awful, no matter who you are for. I have watched Mcneil a few times this year and yes he gets a lot of calls, calls that should be absolutely nocalls.

 

Exactly! Leans into the defenders and sells the refs every time. I don't know who the refs were but one was a 6'1 Spike Lee lookalike. It was amazing the resemblance.

 

I don't wanna sound though like I'm taking anything away from Mcneill's ability cuz he can play at the varsity level. He shoots extremely well and after about a half started to get more aggressive taking it to the hole. Moeves is another one who played better in the 2nd half after getting a little more comfortable. They are 2 very nice players and Bearcat fans will enjoy watching them over the next few years.

McNeil is trying to draw the foul...no doubt about it. 8th region refs overall aren't very good. It's not the contact fouls that make me shake my head... It's the calls out of position, out of their area, and the simple calls that make me wonder if they every played the game of basketball game. It's not a pre curser to success but I believe the more you have played the game whether a player, coach or ref the more the game slows down for you.

 

Qryche.... in your opinion overall how are the ref's in the 9th and 10th regions?

I can speak for the 10th region refs. They will usually let you play. Play in the 10th can get very physical. They will miss a few , like any ref, but overall, the 10th has some very good refs.

 

Waiting to see what is posted about the 9th officials.

Sounds like the problem is that Highlands didn't finish when they had the big lead. Always easier to blame in on the refs than look at all the missed opportunities they had and admit that they just blew it.

There was a thread in this forum about letting a more physical team take advantage of teams that are less physical. A foul is a foul. Admittedly there are some bad officials in the 8th, but there are just as many in all regions. Luck of the draw in my opinion. Like every region, there is a top tier of officials, a mid level tier, and a bottom tier. Generally the bottom tier does not see varsity games much. The top tier gets the tougher matchups where conference and district play is involved this time of year. While the middle tier gets what is left of the varsity games. I am sorry, but a WV vs Highlands non district game would not garner the draw of the top tier officials from the assigner during this point of the season.

 

It would have been the same level of officiating had the game been played in Highlands gym, maybe the calls would have been different, but the level of the officials would have been about the same.

There was a thread in this forum about letting a more physical team take advantage of teams that are less physical. A foul is a foul. Admittedly there are some bad officials in the 8th, but there are just as many in all regions. Luck of the draw in my opinion. Like every region, there is a top tier of officials, a mid level tier, and a bottom tier. Generally the bottom tier does not see varsity games much. The top tier gets the tougher matchups where conference and district play is involved this time of year. While the middle tier gets what is left of the varsity games. I am sorry, but a WV vs Highlands non district game would not garner the draw of the top tier officials from the assigner during this point of the season.

 

It would have been the same level of officiating had the game been played in Highlands gym, maybe the calls would have been different, but the level of the officials would have been about the same.

 

I'm not sure how every region does it but I know some regions allow each team to classify two of their games as "prime." Prime games get the top officials. So you might see top tier officials in the 9th at CCH/Holmes or Dayton/Bellevue. Other than prime games (which there aren't that many) the games are split up without the offical's rating being taken into account.

There was a thread in this forum about letting a more physical team take advantage of teams that are less physical. A foul is a foul. Admittedly there are some bad officials in the 8th, but there are just as many in all regions. Luck of the draw in my opinion. Like every region, there is a top tier of officials, a mid level tier, and a bottom tier. Generally the bottom tier does not see varsity games much. The top tier gets the tougher matchups where conference and district play is involved this time of year. While the middle tier gets what is left of the varsity games. I am sorry, but a WV vs Highlands non district game would not garner the draw of the top tier officials from the assigner during this point of the season.

 

It would have been the same level of officiating had the game been played in Highlands gym, maybe the calls would have been different, but the level of the officials would have been about the same.

 

Great post! Seems like there has been more mention of officiating on BGP this year than in past years. There is so much parity this year in HS basketball that it seems most games are coming down to that one or two possessions where every basket and every call is magnified.

 

I think I have made this point in other threads in that the problem with officals in most if not all regions is quality depth. Just my opinion but I think it is especially true in the 8th & 9th Region. The top guys in those regions are as good as any group of officlals in the state but I think that mid tier and lower tier group are weaker. Great point about the difficulty of assigning games this time of the year especially when teams are going out of region. If the game is at Highlands you don't get a top tier 9th Region crew for the very same reasons.

Two of the top 3 officials in the 8th were at Richmond for the All A. Also, Spencer Co. hosted North Oldham last night. I would assume that game had a good crew.

Highlands loses to Walton Verona?? Wow...things are looking bleak in Caketown.

8th region top tier officials, I don't think there are too many to be classified as top tier in the 8th. In my opinion the middle tier is very slim also. There needs to apparently be a better program to develop and continually improve the officiating. I know it is a thankless job, but you would think that over several years of officiating, an official would improve. That doesn't seem to be happening. If officials aren't required to currently, I think they should be required to watch a certain number of games films of their own officiating and watch it with someone who constructively critiques their performance. Just as players and coaches watch game films, you can often see your misstakes better if you see it yourself on the film. Just my thoughts. But something needs to be done to improve the officiating. I realize there will never be a perfect game called by officials, no one can ever do that, but there should be some noticiable improvements made.

Sounds like the problem is that Highlands didn't finish when they had the big lead. Always easier to blame in on the refs than look at all the missed opportunities they had and admit that they just blew it.

 

Sounds like you werent there and have no clue but to take the easy route and say its a "blame it on the refs" loss. Listen to the WV fans on here, they are even saying how terrible they were. Anytime another teams converts 10+ more FT's than another team attempts there is a problem. Highlands didnt finish but when you call bogus fouls to stop the clock and allow WV to score from the FT line without any time running off the clock that is contributing to Highlands' inability to finish.

Edited February 7, 201115 yr by mcpapa

Idon't know if it is true but word on one 8th region ref was he starting calling the 8th region because the 9th region would not let him call the boys games.

One of the refs seemed to be buddies with Dan Trame as they were having some interesting conversations throughout the game that looked ultra friendly.

 

My last comment on this will be you had 2 former professional athletes in the stands in Senator Jim Bunning and Cris Collinsworth, you also had the Great Ken Shields there watching his grandson. All 3 I can assure you will give you the same take I am giving you. It got so bad at one point where they called a foul on a WV player when two Highlands players ran into each other getting a rebound and then they said the Highlands player was shooting the ball. We all just laughed and the WV fans became unglued. LOL

Maybe the refs were horrible. But come on. Also as bad as some of his teams got homered, Ken Shields never talked poorly about referees. Doubt he would start now.

If this was your first taste of 8th region refs you better hope it was your last. There is a couple of good ones and the rest are awful, no matter who you are for. I have watched Mcneil a few times this year and yes he gets a lot of calls, calls that should be absolutely nocalls.

The good couple were in Richmond for the All "A". Coldiron and Sandlin were in Richmond. Who were the officials for this game??