I've watched the games throughout the tournament and had the same impression a lot of people did, which is that there were a lot of poorly officiated games. But I'm not sure officiating is any worse -- and is probably better -- than it was 10, 20 or 30 years ago.
Players are bigger, stronger and faster than ever before. That makes the physicality and athleticism that officials must deal with more challenging than ever before. It's highly difficult and almost impossible, I'd say.
I had no dog in any of these fights the last few nights and I thought that officials got several wrong on both sides and that no team could say it cost them the game. Over the course of a game, the missed calls pretty much even themselves out.
You also hear a lot of people say that the charge/block is a huge problem and that refs get it wrong too often. Guess what, I played the game in high school and college 30 years ago and it was a problem then. It will always be a subjective call about whether the guy is stationed there or not and who initiates the contact, etc. Not sure how it gets any better.
The thing that's different now, than then, is that there are 12 different angles to look at things on replay (like Winslow's finger nail touching the ball) and millions of people on social media second guessing the call as soon as they see it, which gets everyone in a fever pitch and whining about the officials instead of just accepting the game for what it is.
I will say that I don't like officials who think they're bigger than the game and who jump around and make themselves part of the show. Just call what you see, do it with integrity and let the players entertain us.
Wonder what others think. Is officiating that bad or are well just carrying around standards that are too high?
Players are bigger, stronger and faster than ever before. That makes the physicality and athleticism that officials must deal with more challenging than ever before. It's highly difficult and almost impossible, I'd say.
I had no dog in any of these fights the last few nights and I thought that officials got several wrong on both sides and that no team could say it cost them the game. Over the course of a game, the missed calls pretty much even themselves out.
You also hear a lot of people say that the charge/block is a huge problem and that refs get it wrong too often. Guess what, I played the game in high school and college 30 years ago and it was a problem then. It will always be a subjective call about whether the guy is stationed there or not and who initiates the contact, etc. Not sure how it gets any better.
The thing that's different now, than then, is that there are 12 different angles to look at things on replay (like Winslow's finger nail touching the ball) and millions of people on social media second guessing the call as soon as they see it, which gets everyone in a fever pitch and whining about the officials instead of just accepting the game for what it is.
I will say that I don't like officials who think they're bigger than the game and who jump around and make themselves part of the show. Just call what you see, do it with integrity and let the players entertain us.
Wonder what others think. Is officiating that bad or are well just carrying around standards that are too high?
