Congratulations to Hunterdon Central and Rutgers Prep on winning their respective county tournaments Saturday night. My preseason number one and three made me look good, and my preseason number two (Piscataway) and number five (Westfield) can keep it going today in their respective county finals.
But the real reason for this post is that I want to put out there something that the area coaches are to classy to talk about.
I thought the officiating in the Somerset County Tournament this season was notably disappointing.
People always say that officials are doing a good job if you are watching the game and don't notice they are there. Well, that was impossible in the SCT. Whether it was ticky-tack calls in crunch time or whistles blown every five seconds for an entire 32 minutes, the SCT officials certainly made their presence felt in every game I attended.
I admit I attend more SCT games than any other county tournament, but in the few games of the Union County Tournament and Hunterdon/Warren Tournament that I did see in person, this was not a problem.
Yet in the SCT, officials owned the spotlight. Officiating is a tough job and one I am not cut out for -- seriously, I did it for a while at the junior high school level and could not hack it -- it just seemed like the officials in this tournament played too big of a role in dictating outcomes.
Some examples:
-- Rutgers Prep shot 18 free throws to Watchung Hills' four in the SCT final.
-- Rutgers Prep had a similarly large advantage in free throws attempted (I don't have the exact numbers) against Franklin in the SCT semifinals.
-- While the foul calls were evenly distributed, there were far too many in the SCT semifinals between Bridgewater-Raritan and Watchung Hills. Several fans in the area of the stands where I was sitting could not believe how often one particular official blew the whistle. It literally was every possession down the stretch.
FOOTNOTE: This is not meant to taint Rutgers Prep's victory. I've said all year that I felt RP was the best team in Somerset County, and its method of attacking the rim certainly lends itself to attempting more free throws than its opponents. This is just a recurring theme I am left with after watching seven SCT games.
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9 comments:
Yes. Give Rutgers Prep Coach some credit for adjusting her teams' style of play the past few years to create all of the contact inside.
As an aside, if you've been watching basketball in NJ the past ten years, you should know/accept that 80% of the time the refs are poor, and having three ref crews just make the games worse.
Keep up the good work, Ryan.
Funny. The games I've been at this year I didn't think the whistle was blown enough. I've seen a LOT of obvious no-calls this season, many in the SCT (Ville/Immaculata was ridiculous - Mulkerin traveled or walked 50% of the time she had the ball). Oh well.
Any predictions on tomorrow's state games?
^I didn't get a chance to grab the CN yesterday so if you posted your predictions in the Varsity section, I'm sorry.
Agree with you Ryan. I myself have been at too many games (regular season and tournament) with many different teams as well where the officiating was terrible and inconsistent. It makes it very difficult for the girls to play at a consistent level. Little touches or overly aggressive play that isn't called in the first half of a game start to be called in the second. Or a single ref takes total control of the games. I was at one game where a team picked up 12 foul calls in one half, compared to 2 for their opponent and 11 of those twelve calls were by a single ref. Ref #2 blew the shistle on the other three.
I've seen refs out of position anticipating and making calls that they can't even see. The refs are there to make certain that the rules of the game are followed and more importantly that the players are safe during the games. When they don't do their jobs appropriately everyone suffers.
I was a ref for a number of years at the high school level and I think the skill of the refs in the SCT and the Skyland Conference in general has decreased.
Two things:
Firstly, Coaches need to understand how the refs are calling the game and adjust accordingly.
Secondly, you are not going to get quality refs for county girls game. Believe me if they are any good they are not available for a HS county girls games. That's a reality.
What I noticed in the WH vs RP game was that WH plays a more "pressure the ball" at all times game which leads to getting more turnovers and fouls. RP pressures the ball with one player, I am not sure of the number, 40 or 49, she seemed to use her speed and length to frustate Schaffer and the other guards without picking up any fouls. That, I have a tough time understanding why no fouls were called on her on a few occasions. Two of the foul calls on Lupo were ridiculous, the momentum shifted once she fouled out. Overall, I thought both teams played hard and very tough defense, and did deserve better and more consistent "reffing."
What people perceived as inconsistencies in calls are more often not because the refs have changed the way they are calling the game but really a result of a team becoming more scrappy because they have fallen behind and are trying to create turnovers. As a fan who is looking simply a the foul counts you may end up with the wrong conclusion. In many games if a team is behind by double digit, they will fight hard and play more aggressive to get back in the game, hence they will get more fouls called against them.
Sorry, I wasn't looking simply at the foul counts but at the types of fouls that were being called. Having ref'd myself for about a dozen years I do know the difference.
Sometimes inconsistencies are just that.
I notice when the big somerset county schools lose it's time to blame the officials. When the smaller schools lose because bad officiating it's not the refs it's because they are suppose to lose. Give more credit to some of the smaller schools.
It has nothing to do with the size of the school - it has everything to do with the number of fouls called and foul shots awarded to Rutger' Prep.
In the SCT semi's and finals RP was awarded approximately 48 foul shots to their opponents approx 12
This is not an opinion, it is a fact.
The number is so disproportionate that Ryan felt compelled to discuss it in his blog.
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