A Tale of Four Officials

I touched on this briefly in my Game Notes from the Maryville game back in November. But in the wake of a contest in South Dakota from this past weekend, I need to revisit it. The time has come to tell a full story from the scorer's table. The following is a true story, but names and identities have been redacted from the story to protect the individuals involved.

So, come back with me to November 21st at Merner Fieldhouse in Naperville. The Cardinals are locked in a tight struggle with a ranked Maryville team, down 85-83 with under a minute to play. A stop gives the Cardinals a chance to tie or take the lead. Nearing 30 seconds left, the shot clock is winding down, and a Maryville player puts up a shot along the right baseline with about six seconds left on the shot clock. It hits back iron at about four seconds and bounces high in the air, ultimately being rebounded by another Maryville player. The shot clock had ticked down to two seconds before being reset, as is the rule for a shot that hits the rim. Then, inexplicably, we hear a whistle.

One official comes over to the table and is asking the shot clock operator why she reset the shot clock. She then proceeds to talk things over with her for a couple minutes, as I'm looking at some of the other people at the table in confusion. One guy and I are telling each other, "It hit the rim, it's supposed to be reset," before being told by the official to be quiet. So we turn back to each other quietly and continue to confirm to each other that yes, the shot did in fact hit the rim when the ref tells us again, "You guys, be quiet! I can hear you over here!" Apparently, the plain view of a couple people at the table seeing something that did not benefit the home team does not apply, and after about five total minutes of discussion, she comes over and tells us that basically, because the horn did not sound, there is no shot clock violation (never mind the fact that there wasn't one anyway because THE BALL HIT THE RIM) and Maryville gets the ball out of bounds. The Cardinals ultimately go on to lose 87-85, but not without some on-court drama and another stoppage by the same official checking with me and two other people at the table to see if we had any "definite knowledge" that the clock should read anything other than 0.5 seconds. Obviously, we didn't, and it's not a bad decision to come make sure with that little time left in a close game to make sure that everything is correct, but it's kind of crazy that the same official stopped the game again.

Now, this is an experienced official and someone who has worked North Central games before. However, this is a total failure to stop the game for five minutes over something that no one else saw, and when even the team that is hurt by her attempts to give our team the ball on a supposed shot clock violation knows that it would be the wrong call, you know you messed up. Fortunately, it didn't impact the outcome of a game. I wish the same could be said of that aforementioned game in South Dakota.

I had told this NCC-Maryville story to a coworker after it happened, and we've been joking about it on and off for the past month and a half. Over the weekend, he sent me a link to this Deadspin story about a D-II women's game between Winona State University and the University of Sioux Falls. A quick summary about what happened: Sioux Falls is down 58-56 with a few seconds left, but has the ball. They inbound it to Taylor Varsho, and she hits a go-ahead three with less than a second to play to give her team the lead. The clock operator fails to stop the clock in time (it should have been stopped at 0.4 seconds), and the buzzer sounds, leading to the team rushing the floor to celebrate. The officials get the players back to their benches quickly, and get together to discuss the play. Obviously, time needs to be put back on the clock, and from what I can tell, it was, but at the same time, the officials working the game called a technical foul on Sioux Falls for storming the court. Winona's shooter hit both free throws, and Sioux Falls went on to lose 60-59.

Needless to say, people were upset, and it made me happy to see that the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference, which includes both schools, suspended the officials involved for four games as well as banning them from postseason action. They did not overturn the result of the game, which is smart because that opens up an entire other can of worms, but I have to hand it to the NSIC for making the officials accountable for their mistakes.

Now, maybe I'm making an apples and oranges comparison between these two stories. The NCC-Maryville story is the story of one official ignoring her partners and singlehandedly making a scene about nothing, while the latter is the result of three officials getting together, and after some possible tampering by Winona's coach, directly influencing the outcome of a game on a play that in no way deserves a technical foul. When the buzzer sounds, the natural reaction is to assume game over, but sometimes time gets put back on the clock following a presumed buzzer beater. Never have I seen a game where time gets put back on the clock and a celebrating team gets penalized for having a normal human reaction. It's a gross overstep and abuse of power, which I would argue the ref from my NCC-Maryville game had, only it didn't impact the game and wasn't quite as gross an overstep.

Look, officials have a hard job. I harp on bad calls in real time, but I recognize that an overwhelming majority of the time, it doesn't impact the outcome of the game. There are many times where I'm working a game, see a call go against the Cardinals, and I have to admit that the right call was made, or at a minimum, that I can see why they made the call they did. That said, I recognize that officials are all human and can and do make mistakes sometimes. You have to look past it as best as you can and, if the mistake impacts the outcome, file a complaint and hope the conference won't just sit on its hands.

When the one official in question returns to North Central at some point (and I believe she's scheduled to do at least one more yet this year), I'm going to do my best not to hold a ridiculous stoppage of play against her. After all, it's not like she directly cost us a game.