**** the NCAA

[ShockdaWorld]

You are holding your breath on that one. No matter how universal it should be, every official is going to see a play a little differently. You will never, ever, see every single official in any sports call a game the same way. Just like in baseball, where every umpire has a different strike zone, in basketball, every striped shirt has a different opinion of how much contact they'll allow before it becomes a foul. It's just part of the game and something that everybody has to get used to. Ideally, all officials would at least be very close in the way they called a game.

Whether people like it or not, it is up to the players and the coaches to adjust to how a game is being called, not the other way around.

Regardless, I will agree those guys we had Friday not were ridiculously overofficiating. And that's being nice.

I don't expect any two crews to be exactly the same, but some level of consistency has to be maintained, or there's no point to all the mandates. I've only watched 3 games so far this year, and while our guys were blowing the whistle when someone looked at the other team funny, NMSU vs. UNM refs were allowing muggings. If some level of consistency can't be reached, then the officials and their bosses are NOT doing their job worth a damn.

[Kung Wu]

If you've got 15 minutes to kill, here's the video available to the public on the changes from the new NCAA Coordinator of Officiating:

Note - the talk about reducing physical play starts around the 8 minute mark.

Some highlights ....


1:00 "The rules committee was very active this off season. They made a total of 30+ rule changes. Most of the rule changes were made to increase the pace of play, and decrease the number of stoppages in the game."

Ummm, our referees didn't get the memo.



4:38 "This season, both the offense and defensive players are entitled to their own vertical space."

As a defensive player, if your arms are going forward into the offensive player's vertical space AT ALL, then you are _busted_.

That said, I saw several times in our game where two players went straight up for a 50/50 ball and the refs would call it. STRAIGHT up. That was irritating.



5:47 I'll call it the "The Soccer Rule" -- "Unfortunately a player faking a foul has entered into the game. If the officials are at the monitor to review a flagrant foul, this season they wioll be able to review whether a player has faked a foul." If so "a two shot Class A technical foul will be assessed."



6:10 "This season a defensive player may use an armbar on an offensive player who has his back to the basket in the post area."

You cannot use a double arm bar, or an armbar and a hand, or dislodge an opponent -- those are all fouls.

Could have sworn I saw a couple of our guys wrongly get lit up for this.

...


12:40 The JAKE WHITE Rule change! Well, he'd still get called for blocking, but at least the NCAA recognizes that they were screwing him over for all those years.

[1972Shocker]

I dont know if how many of you watched the UNM/NMS game tonight but these guys have been mugging each other and the refs seem to have swallowed their whistles.

Being officiated far more loosely than our game was.

Aren't the rule changes for all of the NCAA? (Sarcasm)

Chris

Going to a 30-second clock is a rule change. Calling a tighter, less forgiving game is a change in how the existing rules are interpreted and enforced which could vary greatly from one officiating crew to the next. It will probably take some time for not only the players to adjust but for the officiating crews to gain some semblance of consistency although you will never have a totally consistent call from one crew to the next. I anticipate you will even see some variability in a specific crew from one game to the next as they are critiqued and as they keep adjusting back and forth between "You're taking it to far!" Next game "you're calling it to loose!" "That's the way we want that play called!" That's not the way we want that action called!" My guess is the transition for the officials won't be terribly smooth or easy either.