An open letter to the Big 10 director of basketball officials

[Norm Peterson]

Dear Brenda,

 

How are you? I am fine. By the way are you related to Paris Hilton?

 

Anyway, I think it would be awesome if you would gather all the basketball officials in one place and get everyone to sit down and decide once and for all what is a block and what is a charge. I think I speak for all fans everywhere in saying it would be greatly appreciated.

 

Sincerely,

 

Norm

 

P.S. Last night's game between Nebraska and Ohio State was the worst officiated game I've seen in the entire time Nebraska has been part of the league and I think you should do an investigation to find out if the officials were on the take.

 

P.P.S. I sit very far away from the action so how was I able to see things that all three of your guys who were actually on the floor missed? Please schedule an annual eye exam for the tall bald guy especially.

[Tallbaby21]

I wrote a letter to the Big 8 complaining about Ed Hightower in the late 80s. Didn't change anything. 

[basketballjones]

16 minutes ago, Tallbaby21 said:

I wrote a letter to the Big 8 complaining about Ed Hightower in the late 80s. Didn't change anything. 

My dad claims he wrote thee defining letter to the Lincoln Journal Star of the Cipriano era that got him fired. 

[TourneyBound]

41 minutes ago, Norm Peterson said:

Dear Brenda,

 

How are you? I am fine. By the way are you related to Paris Hilton?

 

Anyway, I think it would be awesome if you would gather all the basketball officials in one place and get everyone to sit down and decide once and for all what is a block and what is a charge. I think I speak for all fans everywhere in saying it would be greatly appreciated.

 

Sincerely,

 

Norm

 

P.S. Last night's game between Nebraska and Ohio State was the worst officiated game I've seen in the entire time Nebraska has been part of the league and I think you should do an investigation to find out if the officials were on the take.

 

P.P.S. I sit very far away from the action so how was I able to see things that all three of your guys who were actually on the floor missed? Please schedule an annual eye exam for the tall bald guy especially.

 

Boy worse than that Illinois game....  That 1st half was brutal.  Guess anymore they are all bad though..  SAD

[Huskerpapa]

Replays on the big screen don't lie.  

[roscoe]

54 minutes ago, Huskerpapa said:

Replays on the big screen don't lie.  

It took me and my buddy 10 seconds to see the ball clearly hit the bottom of the backboard support on play they called Greisel oob. It took the refs over a minute to figure same thing out. It was almost like how do we call this so OSU gets the ball. 

[Norm Peterson]

19 minutes ago, roscoe said:

It took me and my buddy 10 seconds to see the ball clearly hit the bottom of the backboard support on play they called Greisel oob. It took the refs over a minute to figure same thing out. It was almost like how do we call this so OSU gets the ball. 

 

Actually, I think what overruled the call was Greisel stepped out but then stepped back in and established himself inbounds before tapping the ball to his teammate. His foot was not over the line at the time he touched the ball.

[Cazzie22]

As bad as the B1G Men officials are the Women’s officials are much worse.

[roscoe]

54 minutes ago, Norm Peterson said:

 

Actually, I think what overruled the call was Greisel stepped out but then stepped back in and established himself inbounds before tapping the ball to his teammate. His foot was not over the line at the time he touched the ball.

The ball bounced off the bottom of the support (which is out of bounds) before Greisel grabbed it. So anything after hitting that support is meaningless.  Not seeing the ball hit that support is bad. Not like it just grazed it. the ball came pretty much straight down.

Edited January 19, 2023 by roscoe

[roscoe]

RULE 7 Out of Bounds and the Throw-in Section 1. Out of Bounds—Player, Ball Art. 1. A player shall be out of bounds when he touches the floor or any object other than a person on or outside a boundary line. An airborne player’s status shall be where he was last in contact with the floor. Art. 2. The ball shall be out of bounds when it touches a player who is out of bounds, any other person, the floor or any object on or outside a boundary, the supports or back of the backboard, or the ceiling or overhead equipment

[Jacob Padilla]

20 minutes ago, roscoe said:

RULE 7 Out of Bounds and the Throw-in Section 1. Out of Bounds—Player, Ball Art. 1. A player shall be out of bounds when he touches the floor or any object other than a person on or outside a boundary line. An airborne player’s status shall be where he was last in contact with the floor. Art. 2. The ball shall be out of bounds when it touches a player who is out of bounds, any other person, the floor or any object on or outside a boundary, the supports or back of the backboard, or the ceiling or overhead equipment

 

This is where it helps for the officials to explain calls after reviews. If we're going to take the time to stop the game, help the TV production educate the viewers. At no point did the broadcast focus on where the ball hit on the initial shot, just whether or not Sam got his feet in bounds. Initially I think it was hard to tell whether it hit the bottom of the backboard or the support, and the call on the floor that they reviewed was definitely Sam being out of bounds. After the lengthy review and the TV focusing on sideline (and Shon Morris' input about the closed fist thing), the officials simply signaled Nebraska ball and they played on. In the NBA, officials explain their conclusion after reviews, which I think helps the fans.

 

The funny thing is that Sam was officially credited with a block, but it looks like it slipped out of Key's hands on the way up and if anything, Sam whacked his empty hands. If he had blocked it on the way up, and they did determine it was but because it hit the support, it would have been off Sam. But I don't think he ever touched the ball.

 

As for the officials themselves, it's funny how every fan seems to think their conference has the worst officials. It's almost like it's a really difficult job. There are so many calls on a game-to-game basis that I just don't understand, but we typically have a better view and aren't focusing on as many things at once as officials need to.

 

Take the Keisei foul for instance: horrible, horrible call. What I think happened was the official was still trying to get in place and was turning around as Sensabaugh made the terrible pass to McNeil that took him off balance from the start. Keisei closed the distance and McNeil, after trying to hold his place, finally started to fall forward and then traveled before jumping to try to get rid of the ball. I think it was a case of the official seeing the forward movement from Keisei followed by the movement from McNeil, and assumed one caused the other. You certainly don't want officials judging reactions rather than actions, but in the moment of a bang-bang play with the official possibly getting eyes on the play late, it's harder to determine what really happened. This is the problem with the flopping technical rule — sometimes it's really difficult in the moment to see what actually happened.

 

To the game as a whole, I thought they were fairly consistent for a large stretch of the game in that they just refused to call anything despite a significant amount of contact on both ends of the floor. Guys were beating each other up. The sequence where Sam got killed without a call then the officials whistled the moving screen on Breidenbach the next play (which led to the Fred technical) was a departure from the general consistency up until that point, and the calls started to pile up on one side. 

[TourneyBound]

What pisses me off the most is they will call a game totally different in the 2nd half as they do the 1st half.  Just be consistent!!

[roscoe]

The worst part about the flop calls against bigs is they allow them to bump each other 3+ times and then when defender realizes he has been moved deep and offensive guy has close range shot he hits the deck.

[Norm Peterson]

43 minutes ago, roscoe said:

The worst part about the flop calls against bigs is they allow them to bump each other 3+ times and then when defender realizes he has been moved deep and offensive guy has close range shot he hits the deck.

 

Derrick Walker plays defense against opposing bigs. He knows what they do. He knows what they get away with when they lower their shoulder and bang into him to create space. When he gets called for the exact same thing that was a no-call on the other end of the floor -- and when it happens consistently (it's consistently inconsistent) -- it's obvious. Last night, it was just brazen.

[roscoe]

14 hours ago, Norm Peterson said:

 

Derrick Walker plays defense against opposing bigs. He knows what they do. He knows what they get away with when they lower their shoulder and bang into him to create space. When he gets called for the exact same thing that was a no-call on the other end of the floor -- and when it happens consistently (it's consistently inconsistent) -- it's obvious. Last night, it was just brazen.

And that's where Walker needs to understand the situation and poor officiating for the game. Like you said it was obvious and either the refs were on the take or just absolutely had it in for the huskers. 

[Tallbaby21]

The Euro/Soccer influence is frustrating. You play tough hardnosed defense and take a shot in the chest and there is never ever a call. If you take that same shot and flop you'll be rewarded.