University of North Carolina Athletics
Mick: Official Accountability
April 16, 2004 | Men's Basketball
April 16, 2004
By Mick Mixon
When a college basketball game ends, the head coaches and players from both teams field questions from the media. As difficult as it might be, the participants face the cameras, notepads and microphones and speak about what happened and why.
On television, radio, on line and in print, the stats are immediately updated and made public. Scoring averages, shooting percentages and turnover margins are carefully scrutinized, coaching strategy is dissected and debated.
ut down the hall, the three men who just officiated the game shower, dress and leave the building alone. For the referee and his two umpires, there will be no press conference, no opportunity to explain what they saw and heard, and no chance to educate the media and the public about the game's complicated playing rules or their officiating mechanics.
Is this fair to the officials? Is it fair to the coaches, whose livelihood is at stake? Is it fair to the fans and media, many of whom don't really understand the rules? And why all the cloak and dagger surrounding such an important aspect of the game?
"I've always thought we could help ourselves if they would let us say our part," said veteran college basketball referee John Clougherty. "It would help our credibility tremendously. I've always been for officials explaining rules. We couldn't get into judgment calls, but we could clear up a lot of controversy and clear up questions by coming into the press room and giving our account of the game."
So why not do it?
"The league office, all league offices, are afraid the wrong thing might be said," Clougherty stated. "At the beginning of every year, they always tell us, 'No conversation with the media about the games.' It could end up embarrassing the league office."
UNC Coach Roy Williams agrees that the system isn't perfect, and says that some officials may not be at their best because they are working too many games.
"It would definitely be better if the referees were more accountable," he said. "Immediately accountable. I'm accountable. You're accountable. You write a dumb article, people read it, okay? They make a dumb call and they forget it. They go try to make another dumb call the next night.
"Fred Barakat (the supervisor of ACC officials) does a really nice job. We have officials that are really professional, but we have no control over them. When one guy leaves a game here he goes back to the hotel and goes to bed, then he gets up the next morning and flies to another place and does another game and sometimes, he doesn't ever look at the tape. One referee that I have a great deal of respect for that I asked an opinion of what happened about four games before and he couldn't remember the play. I checked and in the four games before me, he had worked 16 games since that game. And it was a very, very evident, controversial call and he couldn't remember the play. So they are not accountable."
Coach Williams is not a lone wolf on this subject. Many of his colleagues feel the same way but very few have both his tenure and his candor.
"It (accountability) is an easy term to throw out," said Fred Barakat. "The officials are accountable, but in a different way. They are accountable to me. Leave their accountability and the judgment calls to me. That's my job. The coaches don't want the public coaching their teams. Well, in this situation, the officials are my team. I'm the coach and my job is to make corrections, critique, sit people down, don't start them, or don't re-hire them the following year.
"We don't have the next day to practice," Barakat continued. "I've got to make my critiques and corrections on the run, over the telephone, using the website. All ACC officials' lockerooms are equipped with Ethernet cables. We have an officiating website and all officials have their laptops with them. We send out critiques on plays, we send out bulletins and have our teleconferences on the website, trying to feed them information about past mistakes and past rule applications we think might have been wrong. Granted, officials are not accountable in the same way that coaches are accountable, but they are accountable. And we are dealing with human beings who are prone to make errors, but we try to correct them as we go."
What about the notion that some officials work too many games to be effective? Does Barakat have a maximum number of games in mind?
"My number is problematic in February," said Barakat. "If I start to think there is fatigue there, I'll try to suggest that an official take a rest, maybe get to town earlier and get to the hotel. Diet is very important. Rest is important. Travel can be very weary, but the officials are independent contractors. We can't tell them not to work. I can control my assignments, but I can't control what assignments they get after they get my assignments. They are not our employees, that's the bottom line."
The NBA has full time officials. The NCAA does not.
"The NBA guys all complain about the officials," said Coach Williams. "I watch 'em on TV and they are really good. But they can do no more than three games a week, 10 games a month. An official that you will watch do big time (college) games this year, he's been in the Final Four before. Two years ago he did 93 games. 93 games! I've watched our replay of the Virginia game seven times, and I guarantee you he (the official) has no idea what he did in game 37."
Coaches and officials are never going to live in complete harmony, but a few ideas seem to make good sense.
1) Put a mic on the referee like college football does. No need to announce every foul or violation, but jeez, at least Mister Ref could key his mic and let us all in on what they saw on the replay monitor that caused 2 more seconds to be put back on the game clock, for example.
2) Currently, a pool reporter can ask the referee about a rule application if a game ends in controversy, but why not experiment with a change of procedure for next season and bring the referee into the media room after the game to answer any non-judgment call questions the press corps may have. De-mystifying the playing rules and the men who enforce them might serve the game.
3) Limit the number of games an official can work without at least one full day of rest with no travel.
4) Remove from the conferences the burden of hiring, supervising and assigning officials. If Carolina is playing Connecticut, why should either head coach have to worry about whether the officials are "ACC guys" or "Big East" guys? Why can't they be assigned from an appropriate region of a national pool?
5) Lastly, get the officials some better looking shirts, like the NBA has. Those black and white stripes are more used up than wide ties and mood rings.
You can contact Mick at mmixon@tarheelsports.com. The above column originally appeared in the April issue of Tar Heel Monthly. To subscribe, click here.
