University of Virginia Library

Bum Referees

We have been watching Atlantic Coast
Conference basketball games for several years
now and although the officiating in what is
considered by many to be one of the toughest
of basketball conferences has never really
been outstanding, it seemed to us to be
particularly dismal this past season.

At any given game it seemed as if the two
referees were following two different sets of
rules. Lane violations during foul shots, a call
we have seen rarely over the past couple of
years, was a favorite call although it seems as
if that is a minor infraction of the rules when
compared to some of the antics which were
allowed on the basketball court but would
not be allowed on say, a football field.

At most games the poor performance of
the referees benefited no one team; both
teams seemed to suffer from perplexing calls
which would leave the players shaking their
heads and the coaches jumping up and down
on the sidelines in their rage. When
questioned, officials (including the
Commissioner of the ACC, Mr. Norvell Neve)
would invariably reply that only they knew
anything about basketball and those
complaining were dissidents, soreheads and
dummies.

It is a most painful experience, watching a
basketball game which is interrupted by
nonexistent infringements upon the rules and
allowed to continue after a player has
committed what would amount to assault and
battery if it happened anywhere outside the
basketball court. We feel that a great deal of
the rude crowd behavior in University Hall
this year can be attributed to crowd
frustration with the officiating.

What is most discouraging is Mr. Neve's
unwillingness to concede that his men are
performing their duties in anything except a
satisfactory manner. He has attended games,
has access to game films and ought to know
that when virtually every coach in the
conference becomes violent when asked to
comment on the officiating something is
rotten.

There have been many close games in the
ACC this year, games in which a single call,
made or unmade, could have determined the
outcome in a league where teams were more
evenly matched than in the past.

We hope that Mr. Neve's insularity to
critical remarks about the referees he employs
will not hinder efforts to train them a little
better and offer them higher pay if that is
what it takes to hire men who will call a game
in a more systematic and fair way.