If you aren’t a college basketball watcher, then you’re probably confused by this photo from last night’s MSU-Wisconsin game.

The man to the right, you’re familiar with, that’s coach Tom Izzo. The other one is Ed Hightower, college basketball official extraordinaire. Trust me, I mean that in the most sarcastic way possible. Hightower is well-known amongst college basketball fans as a ref who needs to get his Tv time in every game.

He often is extremely demonstrative in his calls and if you’re lucky, he’ll even stop a game to look at himself on the monitor.

So college basketball fans, I bid you a warning. If you see this man stroll into your building, expect 60 fouls, several stoppages in play, and an overall crappy performance.

{Only Colors}

(cough, cough)

So I can’t say I’m shocked that a situation like this hasn’t occurred before. In a high school basketball game in the Detroit area, a referee called a technical foul after the game was finished.

Yes, the clock was showing zeros but the referee thought it was necessary to hit the winning team with a technical foul for taunting.

There was nothing controversial about the shot Morris sank. It was a 3-pointer and it did easily beat the buzzer and there was no would-be foul on either side. It’s what happened after Morris’ shot that will be debated for years to come.
Reports vary, but the jist of the story is after Morris hit his shot he immediately started sprinting in the direction of the Romeo bench.
Fellow players and fans followed and eventually wound up being a little too close and even on the Bulldogs bench.
Words were exchanged and somebody got physical because the officials called a technical foul for excessive celebration on someone from Dakota, giving the Bulldogs two freethrows.

Obviously, there are two sides to the story. Some are claiming that immediately after the shot went in, there was still .1 seconds left on the clock and thus, the technical was legitimate. Others have argued that it is the refs job to maintain the court from the time he steps on, til the time he steps off.

And you know what I say….

Jay Leno can suck it (wait, what?)

Yea, taunting has no place in high school sports but I’m guessing the kid was maybe a bit excited after hitting a three pointer to win. If punishment is going to be doled out, let the school and/or high school athletic association take care of it. Definitely not the place of the official.

So congrats to this random, unnamed ref. You’ve entered the Jackass Officiating Hall of Fame. Your name will be amongst the greats in the sport.

Dick Bavetta, Bennett Salvatore, the dude who got the coin flip wrong, and of course Easy Ed Hightower.

The growing trend amongst gamblers has been “Stay away from college basketball”.

Maybe it was because it seemed like refs called too many fouls on the visiting team.
Maybe it was because Ed Hightower officiated every game.
Maybe it was because Tim Donaghy had a brother as a NCAA ref (not true).

Or maybe, just maybe, these guys just suck at their job.

An examination of 365 major conference games played during the 2004-05 college men’s basketball season found a clear pattern of an increased probability of a foul on the team with fewer fouls, the visiting team and the team that is leading.

As somebody who just attended the MSU-Gonzaga game last night, I can tell you this: College basketball refs are the most incompetent officials of any sport. They routinely miss simple calls and have no idea when to call a charge or a block.

And sometimes they just invent stuff on the fly

H/t: SportingNews

If you’re a college basketball fan, you’re familiar with the exploits of one Ed Hightower.

An official who takes every opportunity possible to put his mug front and center on the TV.

Yesterday was no different. After checking the status of an obvious three point make, Ed didn’t have a mirror and asked the scorers table for a better look of himself.

No, that’s not what really happened but its the best I can deduce from this picture.

H/t: Red Cedar Message Board

As I watched the MSU-Penn State game last night, I saw the moment the officials decided they were going to make this game suck.

It was at the end of the first half, Kalin Lucas drove the lane got fouled a handful of times and the refs just let it go.

So the Spartans went into halftime up 13.

And it was only a matter of time before 30+ fouls were going to get called in the second half.

Because, see, that’s what big ten basketball has turned into. Sure, some might say that the Big Ten doesn’t employ its own officials, but dammit, I swear I see Ed Hightower every other game.

And he gets into it too. He stares at the crowd before calls and makes himself part of the game. All of a sudden, an entertaining game for the fans becomes a carousel to the free throw line.

There is no such thing as defense. You try to stay in front of your man and you’re getting a block. The only way you get by is if you pull the Wisconsin flop, something good ‘ol Bo Ryan’s been teaching his lads for the better part of a decade.

So what do you do? Well, in MSUs case, you get a huge lead by halftime and damn well do everything you can to hold on.

Its not basketball and as a fan, I don’t want any part of it

From ESPNs Jay Bilas:

Worst No Call: At the end of the UCLA-Texas A&M game, Donald Sloan drove the lane for a potential game winning shot. Sloan was fouled. There is no question about it. A foul should have been called by the officials, and the shooter should have been protected. UCLA’s Josh Shipp clearly hit Sloan on the arm on the shot, and the officials either missed it or chose not to call it because it was a late-game situation. Either way, the no call was unacceptable. The contact on the play was not incidental. No reasonable official can look at that play and suggest otherwise.

I’m glad some of these analysts are taking the refs to task. This has been the worst officiated season of college basketball that I can remember.

Hopefully, this is the next ref up on Jay Bilas’ hit list