Interesting Stat (Refs & the SEC)

[BengermanV]

41-86...

That's the combined record for away games in the SEC right now, which only one team (Florida) having a winning record. Five teams in the conference have a total of 1 road win, one of those teams being Missouri who has otherwise been very good.

4 refs who have officiated SEC basketball have called more fouls against the home team than the road team. 25 have not. One ref (Chuck Jones) has made an average of 5.4 foul calls a game for the home team.

I'm not saying that this Florida team would have won tonight (Florida had 17 fouls to Tennessee's 13, as well as UT getting credit for a score during a foul, basically negating the foul all together), but the SEC needs to look into this. Because as of right now, it's becoming less about who the better basketball team is, and who is play at home and getting the cooking.

Edit: I don't want this to seem like a conspiracy theory thread, because I don't for a second believe SEC refs have any intention of doing this on purpose. HOWEVER, I have always been a proponent of the MLB style, that gives their umps immediate feedback after the games so they know what they did right and what they did wrong. SEC officiating has been bad this year, and I think some constructive criticism headed the refs way might help.

[mbgator]

This is my biggest gripe with SEC officiating. I'm not even looking at it from a Gator point of view. we get some questionable calls at home as well.

[BengermanV]

Originally Posted by mbgator

This is my biggest gripe with SEC officiating. I'm not even looking at it from a Gator point of view. we get some questionable calls at home as well.

Oh, absolutely. This isn't just a Gator issue, it's a league wide issue. I visit rival sites pretty frequently, and most that had chatter about this game thought the refs weren't exactly on our side tonight.

I don't mean to take credit away from Tennessee, who played a heck of a game.

[tommyuf21]

The refs are intimidated by the home crowd and make calls accordingly. This problem has existed since people my father's age were undergrads. Doubt it will change.

[BengermanV]

Originally Posted by tommyuf21

The refs are intimidated by the home crowd and make calls accordingly. This problem has existed since people my father's age were undergrads. Doubt it will change.

Looking over StatSheet's statistics, it would appear to be much worse this year than before. I know it's always been a problem, but unless I'm mistaken, the SEC has it worse than any other conference.

[gatorev12]

Originally Posted by tommyuf21

The refs are intimidated by the home crowd and make calls accordingly. This problem has existed since people my father's age were undergrads. Doubt it will change.

Then they shouldn't be refs.

If they get too scared to make the right call, they need to be in a different profession and stop wasting everyone's time.

I can't claim to be a high-level ref or anything (I've done high school soccer games as a way of getting out of the office at the law firm and getting some exercise to boot)--and I can honestly say that while I've no doubt I've missed dozens of calls in my day; I've never once let a crowd influence my decision-making. And yes, I am aware that officiating in front of a few dozen to a little over 100 people is a far cry from officiating in front of several thousand people...but again, if you can't handle the criticism or the comments, then you shouldn't be a ref. Period.

[bowlinggreenvol]

Y'all do realize there's no such things as SEC basketball refs? They cover a region/several conferences. For example, I've seen Teddy V doing ACC and Big 10 games, in addition to SEC. However, I do agree the officiating needs to be looked into. I'll take it, but the charge call on Rosario at the end was awful. Richardson was there and had established position but he bailed out before contact. Unfortunately for UF the only ref in "position" to make the call was under the basket and probably shielded from actually seeing if contact was made.

[gatorfansrule]

It's called home court advantage. The refs are human beings and their adrenaline can get racing too when the home crowd gets going. For example, see the charge call tonight against Rosario where the ref ran from the baseline halfway to center court to show off his charge call.

[BengermanV]

Originally Posted by gatorfansrule

It's called home court advantage. The refs are human beings and their adrenaline can get racing too when the home crowd gets going. For example, see the charge call tonight against Rosario where the ref ran from the baseline halfway to center court to show off his charge call.

Absolutely. But the point of my post was that it has gone from a home court advantage to the other team getting almost 4-5 extra calls per game. I looked through almost every other major conference, and it seems to be the worst in the SEC (by a substantial margins).

BGV, thanks for the post. Tonight's game wasn't bad in particular (didn't disagree with much, actually). But the officiating has been a big talking point around here, so I figured I'd point out some interesting statistics.

[iam4uf]

Originally Posted by BengermanV

tonight (Florida had 17 fouls to Tennessee's 13)

Wasn't it something like this at the half: UT - 7 fouls, UF - 2 fouls? So, in the second half, the refs called an equal number of fouls on UT as they had in the first which should be expected. But calling 15 second half fouls on UF? Looks fishy.

[your_perfect_enemy]

I just don't understand how inconsistent refs can be within a game. It's like every tv timeout they huddle up and discuss how they're going to call the next 4 minutes. It seemed like they were calling every single touch foul early in the second half and then with about 8 minutes left they let the game turn into a heavy weight fight for about 4 minutes then they went back to calling all the touch fouls. It went both ways so I'm not even complaining about the outcome of the game, but it just baffles me how they change their officiating style seemingly on a whim

[Distant Gator]

The refs last night were so inconsistent. The 1st 10 minutes they were letting them play- then Stokes went over the back egregiously and Billy D complained.

In response, they called a bunch of fouls on UT right in a row. They went from letting them play to calling every little thing- seemingly in response to Billy's complaining.

That got the crowd riled up so then they called a bunch on us to show they weren't in Billy's pocket.

I wish they would be consistent and fair but I guess that's too much to ask.

[gatordavisl]

Make home crowds happy. Feel more love from the fans. Sell more tickets. Get a pat on the back.

[themistocles]

I would like to raise this issue again, given that two teams, and two teams only ended up the season with a winning road record, both at 5-4, those being Florida and Kentucky.

I certainly recognize the importance of the home court/field/etc., and it is not surprising that refs tend to favor the home team since their very lives may depend on being favorable, but it simply appears to me that SEC refs really overdo this.

Actually, only a couple of calls during a game in a streaky sport like basketball can kill a comeback, or stop a comeback.

Anyway, given the Gators last 6 games, with 3 home wins and 3 road losses, it just sort of came home again how refs can influence such phenomena. I am not saying the refs were the cause, but they certainly did not help the Gator's chances in any of those losses.

[hoopnscoopuf]

Originally Posted by gatorev12

Then they shouldn't be refs.

If they get too scared to make the right call, they need to be in a different profession and stop wasting everyone's time.

I can't claim to be a high-level ref or anything (I've done high school soccer games as a way of getting out of the office at the law firm and getting some exercise to boot)--and I can honestly say that while I've no doubt I've missed dozens of calls in my day; I've never once let a crowd influence my decision-making. And yes, I am aware that officiating in front of a few dozen to a little over 100 people is a far cry from officiating in front of several thousand people...but again, if you can't handle the criticism or the comments, then you shouldn't be a ref. Period.

Amen

[whitelakegator]

I didn't see anything in the last 7 minutes of the UK game that was a bad call. It is hard to get fouls called when you are playing sloppy and timid.

[BengermanV]

Yeah, the UK game was nothing more than a couple of typical home calls. We definitely lost that one ourselves.