How would you grade the basketball referees in Georgia?
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What do you think of the quality of officiating in the state of Georgia for high school basketball?
We’re interested in your feedback. Share your stories and experiences with referees this year.
What did you see that you like? What didn’t you like? The more specific the examples from game situations, the better.
What could be improved upon? How would you make those improvements? (Remember, it’s a tough economy)
Note: Please don’t use this as a forum to randomly bash officiating. I know a lot of good officials, and they do the best they can to get it right. No one is perfect.
Let’s hear what you have to say … and again, the more specific the examples, the better. Please post below.
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115 comments Add your comment
Cobb-County-Mom
February 12th, 2011
10:34 am
As a mom who supports her children in the sport, I know a bad call when I see one. My children have played for Metro Atlanta and now in Cobb County and I have seen some bad refs. Unfortunately for our children they are the same ones and are consistently horrible. You know when you see them step on the floor exactly how the game is going to go wrong. Who monitors these people???? I have never seen a game in the three years my son and daughter have played varsity basketball in Cobb county be called evenly and fair. And God forbid if your child attends a school in Cobb County that everybody loves to hate and celebrates like they won the NBA Championship if they do happen to win. It seems like the refs just join the ban wagon and become the party planner for the celebration. Coo doz to those refs I see that do their job and does it well. Refs its all about your integrity and accountability to the game and to those kids who deserve the best refs and for a game to be called fairly. Believe it or not, we all know that most of the time you control the game and a fair win or bad lose is a lot based on how you call the game. Search yourselves be true to your art.
Concerned teacher
February 12th, 2011
9:16 pm
It appears that many of the refs know which team they want to win the game before the game begins. I recently attended the Marietta/McEachern basketball game at McEachern and noticed that one of the refs was very friendly with the McEachern varsity boys coach. Needless to say, most of the calls were in McEachern’s favor, and the game went into two overtimes. Marietta was winning the game, but with the bad officiating, which consisted of numerous bad calls, McEachern finally won the game after the second overtime. Many of us in the crowd couldn’t believe the blatant cheating that took place. I think the games should be videotaped, and the refs should have to watch them to improve on how they referee games!!
HS BBAll
February 12th, 2011
11:23 pm
…ask anybody who was at the South Cobb – North Cobb game on Feb 01. They (cobb refs) were awful…is an under statement!
jacket31
February 12th, 2011
11:25 pm
refs are bias, was at game last night, HOME team shot 50 freethrows, Visitors shot 14, Home team won by 1. fouls all over the place, just called on visitors. Oh by the way, my team won. no sour grapes. Refs are awful as a whole. To many bad apples thou. just making money, I guess, doesnt seem like alot of money to take abuse from fans. But if your going to be that bad, you are going to take abuse. refs should have to physical fitness test, half of them can’t keep up with the game. i’m amazed you don’t read of more heart attacks on gym floors bye refs.(it wont be long) unfortunatly its not going to get any better. they will probably get a raise soon(everything else is going up) so we will have more rookies who dont know the rules.
jacket31
February 12th, 2011
11:30 pm
Oh by the way, The lead officail at the game last night, is ALWAYS the lead official at our Gym. For at least 5 years now.
oh man its them again
February 12th, 2011
11:37 pm
as a high school coach for over 20 years I have had a run in or two with refs but, never have held a grudge with them. The refs on the other hand do and look to stick it too you quickly so they can show you who is the boss. We played in a X-Mas tourny and had 2 refs at the same time that I told the other teams coaches that are friends that I promise you we will get at least one T called on us….sure enough it was 2. Both were called on consecutive bad calls (watched the tape many times to see if it could have been a good one and it was not even close). I have had 2 T’s in 3 years and all were from the same 2 refs and they always work together. After the game the coaches were all laughing because it was so obvious that the ref was going to T up us no matter what was said.
There are a lot of good refs out there and the best ones are the ones that nobody notices during the game and the outcomes are fair/without controversy.
Bill
February 13th, 2011
9:08 am
As an administrator I have to be at both games each night. I am so glad that I don’t have a daughter playing high school basketball. The kids could make the calls better than the refs on the floor. The officials are just waiting for the boys game. They only go through the motions and speed up the game so that they can get done at a resonable hour. There are two games each night and you should give the same effort to calling the girls games as you do the boys game. It also seems to me that the “officials” are “whining” just as much as the “know it all fans” in this blog. You both should be ashamed at your behavior at these high school events.
BBaller
February 13th, 2011
10:06 am
Wife of a BBall Ref & Atlanta Area Official are right on. I’ve been involved in basketball almost my entire life (as a player, coach, fan and official). To me it is amazing how may players, parents and coaches don’t know the rules. But they are the experts. Next time your at a game or watching one on TV just listen to how many times you hear a fan or TV commentator say so and so was “over the back”. Hmmm — last I checked the rule book there is absolutely zero on “over the back”. Another rule that is often misunderstood is “over and back”. Read the rule book and you’ll learn a thing or two. Once you do that then you can criticize an official for making an incorrect call based on the actual rule. Oh Coaches — most of you don’t know the rules either so it might help if you read the rules as well. Last I checked HS Coaches get paid to coach and I’m sure all of them do it for the love of the game as well.
No an Official
February 13th, 2011
10:09 am
Isn’t it always easier to blame the official for losing the game. I’m sure the coach was perfect in all his/her coaching and both team shot 100% from the floor and free throw line. Sure the Officials aren’t perfect but as one blogger stated earlier — fans should put more energy into cheering for their teams and coaches should focus more on coaching their teams.
Coach
February 13th, 2011
1:25 pm
Everyone makes mistakes we all know that officials makes mistakes that happens but when all the calls are going in one direction that is when the problem occurs when they dont know a simple rule thats where we have problems when the block/charge call is 8-0 thats a problem. Again i dont have a problem with the refs that miss calls i have a problem with the ones that dont know the call or know it but rule it in the other direction we got f%$ked up in pope this year and its bad when you know your about to get f%$ked when you walk in and see the officials (curly moe n his son it happens everytime we see these clowns) we have the film just awful
refcity
February 13th, 2011
6:13 pm
Same Old Mess – I’ll come watch you work at your busy rec league to see if you can ref – sounds like envy to me.
benadawg
February 13th, 2011
7:00 pm
I am an official in a lower level league, I feel like i am an excellant ref and i am totally unaffected by what the crowd thinks….so gripe and moan all you want…..I am the one that matters, not conceited or pompas, i am just saying.
Whitefield Basketball
February 13th, 2011
9:02 pm
I would give single A basketball refs a D+. The calls during the Pace vs. Whitefield game yesterday were horrendous. The refs could not have done a worse job. Kenneth Gaines fouled out which rarely happens. On top of that the Whitefield bench was charged with at least 4 techincal fouls for asking the ref a question. The game could have been closer if the refs didn’t do a fabulous job of blowing calls and over reacting to every missed shot they saw.
AVikingFan
February 15th, 2011
12:23 pm
The oficials I’ve seen at basketball games this year have been – as a whole – much better than the football officials I’ve seen – again as a whole. I don’t know if having more officials at a football game dilutes the number of available officals who are good at what they do, or what the reason is. But I have seen some badly called football games the past few years. There appears to be no consistancy between teams of refs. One week a team of refs will call late hits on a QB over and over, the next week another group lets the defense hit the QB all night (ala Collins Hill last fall getting beat in the playoffs, when their QB was hit over and over, which led to a very poor 2nd half and 4th quarter). These are the kinds of things I’m talking about. Subjective calls. (Obviously when a lineman jumps offside, any ref should call it.) All officials should be graded and held accountable for blown calls, if there appears to be a pattern of that with a particular ref.
Cmarshall
February 2nd, 2012
10:52 am
I have been to every JV and Varsity Norcross girls and boys game this yr and most of them last yr. JV refs don’t seem to know much about basketball and varsity refs do a little better. Refs that never played basketball or don’t know the game are the worst. Most coach’s at the AAAAA level know the game and know it well. They know when a call was right or wrong and will usually let refs know. The worse refs are the ones who don’t want to hear it. They know the coach’s know more and they don’t want to face them. They make calls that sometimes make no since and they can’t back the call up with knowledge. The kids become upset because they know the refs make bad calls and it makes the kids not play to their potential. If you are a ref and you are catching grief from both coach’s and everyone in the stands you probably suck and you know who you are. When the games go well and you don’t hear a lot from the players coaches and fans, you probably make good calls and are a good ref. If you have worked Gwinnett area JV games, or at least the ones I have been to, and you know who you are, you are pretty much awful for the most part. You miss simple calls and calls that should be made and only hurt the kids. Varsity games games occasionally have refs that are horrible but most do a fairly good job.