Bigcityp
02-06-2007, 09:02 AM
Just something from the local paper about Saturday Nights in the MVC...
By Steve Ford
Meet the sad sacks of Saturday night
Posted February 5, 2007
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Welcome to another bizarre Saturday night in the Missouri Valley Conference.
It doesn't really matter who's playing, though, because one thing's for certain on a Saturday night in the Valley: the game will be ugly because the officials are going to stink.
Saturday's home game for the University of Evansville, what would eventually become a 79-71 loss to Northern Iowa, was just another prime example of what has become a running joke in the MVC.
It's all about Saturday night officiating crews. Since all the good referees worked earlier in the day in marquee games, the guys who work Saturday nights are leftovers.
We're talking bad leftovers here, something like serving the surviving snacks from your New Years party for the Super Bowl. They tend to be stale, crumbly and not so good.
Actually, that's being kind. Saturday's crew at Roberts Stadium was awful, not worthy of a junior varsity game at the high school level. In fact, that's exactly what they reminded me of, only these guys should know better.
Let's get their names straight. The lead official, the guy with the shaved head, was Mark Mayhood. The other two, whom I can't differentiate, were Dan Nowakowski and John Moore. We'll consider them an entry.
It didn't really matter, because it was Mayhood who set the tone from the opening tap, which he attempted to throw. It never got higher than Bradley Strickland's elbow and should've been redone. But noooooooo!
And then things went downhill from there. Mayhood started out by dominating the calls. My estimate late in the first half was that he blew 70 percent of the whistles. Other estimates in the press box were higher.
Then, what usually happens in this situation, did. The entry decided it need to start getting involved at a similar level. The result was chaos.
UE coach Steve Merfeld, who's not supposed to comment, did on his coach's show Sunday night. He said, in so many words, it was the worst game he'd seen in his 21 years of coaching.
If it wasn't at the top of my list, it was close. It was terribly inconsistent from all involved. There was a one-step travel called on one trip and running in place with the ball ignored on the next.
Officials within an arm's length of an assault ignored it one trip then called a hard breath on someone's back a foul from across the floor on the next.
All told the numbers were numbing, same as the flow of the game. Make that non-flow. Personal fouls totaled 54, with three of those called intentional, all against the Aces. There were three technicals, including two against Merfeld. I don't blame him for either.
The first game when Eric Coleman, a long-armed beast of a rebounder for the Panthers, came flying through the lane and treated the rim as if it were a trapeze. He pulled it down, hung there, and swung back and forth.
Somehow all three Saturday night foo-flingers missed something that could easily be used as an example of a rim-hanging technical foul in an officiating class. It was an unexcusable miss by all three.
Merfeld's second came when the Aces were attempting, one of many times, to get back into the game. They were down 49-44 and had the ball on a two-on-one fast break with just under nine minutes to play. Kyle Anslinger was dribbling in the open with the ball; Strickland was running into the lane.
As Anslinger swung wide, Strickland simply stopped, and stood still and upright. There was no butt into the defender, no elbow up or out, nothing. I saw it on tape, in slow-motion even, so I know this is fact.
If there was contact, and I'm not sure there was, it might not even elicit an 'excuse-me' at the mall. And, if there was contact, it was initiated by the defender.
When the whistle came, as it surely would on EVERY play, Strickland was called for an offensive foul. My first reaction, the one I shouted out loud and I rarely ever react openly to ANYTHING at a game, was that it was the worst call I'd ever seen.
Whether it was or not, Merfeld seemed to agree and literally came unglued. At least he got his money's worth on his way to his ejection.
Even the normally-restrained crowd at Roberts Stadium lustily booed the Three Stooges throughout. At least, for once, it made their police escort after the game necessity instead of window dressing.
Did it cost the Aces the game? Probably not. Their six-minute scoring drought to open the game and resulting 11-0 deficit definitely hurt more than the effort that could've passed for a spoof on officiating.
But it could've, just the same. They helped put Jason Holsinger on the bench for a season-low 19 minutes right after he hit two straight 3-pointers. They robbed the game of any flow and 5,592 fans of any enjoyment.
If it was up to me they'd never work in the Missouri Valley Conference again, not even on Saturday night.
By Steve Ford
Meet the sad sacks of Saturday night
Posted February 5, 2007
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Welcome to another bizarre Saturday night in the Missouri Valley Conference.
It doesn't really matter who's playing, though, because one thing's for certain on a Saturday night in the Valley: the game will be ugly because the officials are going to stink.
Saturday's home game for the University of Evansville, what would eventually become a 79-71 loss to Northern Iowa, was just another prime example of what has become a running joke in the MVC.
It's all about Saturday night officiating crews. Since all the good referees worked earlier in the day in marquee games, the guys who work Saturday nights are leftovers.
We're talking bad leftovers here, something like serving the surviving snacks from your New Years party for the Super Bowl. They tend to be stale, crumbly and not so good.
Actually, that's being kind. Saturday's crew at Roberts Stadium was awful, not worthy of a junior varsity game at the high school level. In fact, that's exactly what they reminded me of, only these guys should know better.
Let's get their names straight. The lead official, the guy with the shaved head, was Mark Mayhood. The other two, whom I can't differentiate, were Dan Nowakowski and John Moore. We'll consider them an entry.
It didn't really matter, because it was Mayhood who set the tone from the opening tap, which he attempted to throw. It never got higher than Bradley Strickland's elbow and should've been redone. But noooooooo!
And then things went downhill from there. Mayhood started out by dominating the calls. My estimate late in the first half was that he blew 70 percent of the whistles. Other estimates in the press box were higher.
Then, what usually happens in this situation, did. The entry decided it need to start getting involved at a similar level. The result was chaos.
UE coach Steve Merfeld, who's not supposed to comment, did on his coach's show Sunday night. He said, in so many words, it was the worst game he'd seen in his 21 years of coaching.
If it wasn't at the top of my list, it was close. It was terribly inconsistent from all involved. There was a one-step travel called on one trip and running in place with the ball ignored on the next.
Officials within an arm's length of an assault ignored it one trip then called a hard breath on someone's back a foul from across the floor on the next.
All told the numbers were numbing, same as the flow of the game. Make that non-flow. Personal fouls totaled 54, with three of those called intentional, all against the Aces. There were three technicals, including two against Merfeld. I don't blame him for either.
The first game when Eric Coleman, a long-armed beast of a rebounder for the Panthers, came flying through the lane and treated the rim as if it were a trapeze. He pulled it down, hung there, and swung back and forth.
Somehow all three Saturday night foo-flingers missed something that could easily be used as an example of a rim-hanging technical foul in an officiating class. It was an unexcusable miss by all three.
Merfeld's second came when the Aces were attempting, one of many times, to get back into the game. They were down 49-44 and had the ball on a two-on-one fast break with just under nine minutes to play. Kyle Anslinger was dribbling in the open with the ball; Strickland was running into the lane.
As Anslinger swung wide, Strickland simply stopped, and stood still and upright. There was no butt into the defender, no elbow up or out, nothing. I saw it on tape, in slow-motion even, so I know this is fact.
If there was contact, and I'm not sure there was, it might not even elicit an 'excuse-me' at the mall. And, if there was contact, it was initiated by the defender.
When the whistle came, as it surely would on EVERY play, Strickland was called for an offensive foul. My first reaction, the one I shouted out loud and I rarely ever react openly to ANYTHING at a game, was that it was the worst call I'd ever seen.
Whether it was or not, Merfeld seemed to agree and literally came unglued. At least he got his money's worth on his way to his ejection.
Even the normally-restrained crowd at Roberts Stadium lustily booed the Three Stooges throughout. At least, for once, it made their police escort after the game necessity instead of window dressing.
Did it cost the Aces the game? Probably not. Their six-minute scoring drought to open the game and resulting 11-0 deficit definitely hurt more than the effort that could've passed for a spoof on officiating.
But it could've, just the same. They helped put Jason Holsinger on the bench for a season-low 19 minutes right after he hit two straight 3-pointers. They robbed the game of any flow and 5,592 fans of any enjoyment.
If it was up to me they'd never work in the Missouri Valley Conference again, not even on Saturday night.