Officiating is quintessential in sports and is the main topic of discussion of every game, whether the game is important or not. In light of the Tim Donaghy Scandal and the disdain I have for Dan Crawford, I will lay off the bumbling NBA officials.
The worst officiating in sports has to reside in the world of men’s college basketball. Though I love college basketball with a passion, the officials are so inconsistent and biased that it seems like some teams are playing 5-on-8.
The college game is already enough of a crapshoot, with its star players only staying for one season and a three-point line that 10-year-olds can stroke at least 40% of the time. Those two observations make upsets more likely to happen in addition to the mix referees that either call any contact between players or wait until a player draws blood to blow the whistle.
The best examples I can think of are during the NCAA tournament, and any games at Cameron Indoor Stadium, home of the most annoying team in college basketball—Duke.
In the NCAA tournament, a referee always fails to land a star player in foul trouble early in the first half of an intriguing game. The calls either lean towards the home team in the regular season, or the underdog in the tournament games.
The Blue Devils get every call on every possession at Cameron Indoor, including those infamous charge calls that Shane Battier and J.J. Redick made a career on. The refs cater excessively to Mike Krzyzewski and psycho Cameron Crazies.
This year’s casualty of awful, incompetent officiating in the NCAA was Georgetown's center Roy Hibbert. In the game against the heavy underdog Davidson, Hibbert only played five minutes in the first half and wasn't a threat after being called for two cheap fouls early in the game. Davidson won that match, and nearly beat the national champions-to-be, Kansas.
Some changes that need to be made for the improvement of the college game are that the top NBA officials need to train the NCAA officials, conference affiliations with officials should be eliminated, and better communication between coaches and officials should be established.
The top NBA officials can train the NCAA referees on making consistent calls over the course of a game and on the mental toughness needed to make the right call, no matter how unpopular.
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