So, I did a sampling of 5 bad calls or non-calls in the UCLA game posted it in the tournament game thread. I also sent the video to a friend of mine at work who did HS officiating for a few years and asked him to analyze the video and give me his perspective. The thing is:
a. He did officiating (girls) for the fun of watching basketball
b. He hasn't officiated in the last few years
c. He doesn't watch UT regularly, but lives in town working at the same technology company as me
d. He's an LSU grad, so totally neutral
His comments to me (from my memory as I didn't jot down notes but he told me he did on his end!)
1. Player just ran into Audrey and creamed her
First, he said, "That was a bad call. I wouldn't have made that call" Then, he said, "Well....okay the ref probably justified it to himself by saying that she wasn't in a defensive position." I asked what do you define a defensive position? He said, "Looks like she's just standing around. Now, if she'd gotten her hands up, then that would have been defensive position and UCLA would have been been called for a charge"
But yeah, he said bad call. (since he isn't a UT fan, he doesn't understand Audrey's concussion history)
2. Foul on Kyra when UCLA scored a bucket when it looked like Kyra was in good blocking position
He said, "Yeah, 35 should have been called on that" What? "There was a foul but 35 should have been called but the ref decided to give it to 15". What do you mean "give it to 15?!" We went round-and-round on that. Basically, if there's two or more defenders around the action and the offensive player was fouled, the ref might "give" the foul to the lesser star so that the major star (Charli) can stay in the game longer. What?!?! Apparently, that's an inside ref secret. He also pointed out that sometimes the lesser player on a team will raise their arm to indicate they should be given the "credit" for a foul to take away the mark away from the star. What?! I've seen that happen in games and wondered why some players do raise their arm and say, "Yeah, it was me".
3. Krya getting bumped by 33 of UCLA on what looked like a moving screen
He said, "Yeah, she should have given 1.5 feet to move around her." Now, when my friend said that, I didn't take the chance which "her" he was talking about. UT-her (Kyra) or UCLA-her (#33). But we'd been doing work since 6:30 am and had only started talking about basketball around 7:00 am.
4. Celeste trying to defend and getting knocked off the court
I don't remember what he said about this one. Basically, I think he said it was good call.
5. Kyra being hooked and knocked down by Chou
No comments about that
6. Celeste scoring and crashing into Onyenwere
I said isn't that a bad non-call on Celeste for charging? He said, "No, play that tape back and watch the defender's feet. Her feet are shuffling forward when contact is made" Wow, he was right when you play it back.
