Pac-10 Conference Needs a Referee Makeover

If you're a fan of the Pac-10 conference then you understand the frustrations in watching their officials.

It has carried over from the football field to the basketball court. It's time for a change and it has to start as soon as possible.

What does this mean? It means that there needs to be changes at every level in the entire Pac-10 conference and it starts at the top. Commissioner Thomas Hansen should be forced out and Bill Mcabe should be fired as well.

Let's start with a call during the UCLA vs. Cal game. Bob Knight was bashing the refs for making this call because it happens all the time and it is never called like it was—except for, of course, in the Pac-10.

The play in question was when Theo Robertson went to foul a UCLA player and grabbed him intentionally. It wasn't a foul that was flagrant, he was just trying to stop an easy layup. But Robertson's foul offered very little contact and the UCLA player made the shot.

So, instead of a three-point opportunity for the player, it was called an intentional foul.

So UCLA got the two points, made the two free throws for the intentional foul, and because it was an intentional foul, UCLA got the ball back. 

UCLA then hit a three, making it a seven-point possession.

That call was one of the worst calls in NCAA history and the Pac-10 owes Cal an apology for the inappropriate actions by those refs. Not only that, but every single one of them should have been fired after the game.

Pac-10 officials are the worst at calling blocking fouls as well. They buy 99 percent of the flops, even if the defender is nowhere near being in position. It happens to every team.

There were two instances in the Cal vs. Arizona game where a flop led to a charge call.

The first one went against Cal when Theo Robertson went up for a layup and Chase Budinger flopped—he was nowhere near having position.

The second call was against Arizona and I believe it was Theo Robertson who flopped and drew the charge on Budinger.

There was only one call that was correct in the game in terms of an offensive foul being called and that was when Jorge Gutierrez stepped in and got into position to take the charge.

It's something that has to be fixed now. Too bad the Pac-10 conference won't do anything about it and it will continue to decline and decline—until every single Pac-10 coach starts complaining to the media about how horrible the officiating is.

The Pac-10 needs change and it's clear that right now the refs in the conference aren't fit to ref middle school games. It's time for a change and the change has to come immediately.