Officiating

[TheCatInTheHat]

I'm sticking this here, because it's not specific to Arizona or any specific call in a specific game. It's hard to find good people in lots of professions, and that's certainly the case for sports refs; I have no idea why anyone would want to do it. But, regardless, it's no excuse for giving any individual such a wide latitude to promote their personal opinions on how a sport should be played. Harmless open court touch fouls, and usually-wrong block calls are followed by letting the home team bang away down low, while the visitors get fouls on identical plays. Assuming there's no widespread corruption, the assumption has to be that there's either unwillingness, or poor judgment just can't be trained out of people at that level. I'd be fine with a remote supervisor who immediately sends a text to the crew chief at the stoppage. There's a quick huddle, then the arena announcer says "There's no foul on the previous play." If some ref is humiliated and quits over it...fine. If they keep getting dinged for it...bye. I'm not advocating letting anybody be a battering ram on offense. But most block/charge calls are from no-impact plays that should be no-calls. Ideally, they swallow the whistle, but I'd take the slight delay and wave-off. Maybe that kind of OJT would work, rather than the pre-season seminars and usually counter-productive "points of emphasis." Otherwise, unless coaches want to make enemies at league officiating offices with formal complaints, everybody seems to think everything is just ducky. The system should work to solve the problem, not perpetuate it.

[EastCoastCat]

You really need to learn how to use paragraphs. More people would actually read what you have to say.

[ProfessorFate]

Just skip his posts - all he does is whine and spin everything. Been doing the same thing going back to ua sports.net.