Officiating and Our Guys

While I am sure everyone is sick of hearing about refs, I'm going to add my seven cents into the discussion after watching the Minnesota AAU state qualifier this past weekend. I wasn't there to watch the refs, I was there recruiting and to watch two of my players coach their MN Magic 17 and under AAU team. What I noticed there was some of the officiating I've ever seen.

In the first game I watched (Magic Elite vs. River City ______), I noticed that there were only two refs while a couple of the courts had three. I never will understand why high school or college games aren't two man crews, especially now with the economic situation (apparently they are moving back to two man crews in MN this next high school season). The two refs were just awful. They decided to explain every single play to the players and the coaches. I have no clue why they even talked to the players. Not only did they make awful calls they also had really bad mechanics. For the people that don't know, when a ref makes a call with a raised closed fist it means a foul and if they open their hand then it a violation (traveling, out of boards, etc...). These two guys were just awful with their mechanics and I had to watch another game because it was really annoying me.

The next game I watched, I see a ref that physically can't get up and down the floor. He shouldn't be doing games, let alone games that give teams a chance to advance to the AAU state tournament. I don't understand how these guys get games. I do understand these guys are trying to make money but the game is for the kids not the adults. The same can be said for some college refs as well. Some can't get up and down the court and shouldn't be assigned to a middle school game let alone a college game. Too many of the refs have been passed by, the speed of the game is just too fast for them to effective in their trade.

Now onto something I should be proud of. Our team won their first game in the MCTC summer league over at 43 Hoops. We only have four returners (Nick Carroll, Dan Andersen, Carl Hipp, and Pierre Harris) playing with 3 deposited recruits (Victor Easter, Andy Voigt, and Charlie Choniere), 2 possible recruits, and one more enrolled student. I wasn't able to make the game but I heard that Nick Carroll and Dan Andersen played well. Victor Easter, one of our top recruits played really well at the point for us. We beat the top 43 Hoops 17 under AAU team. I know they are high school kids but they all are allegedly are going to be Division One players (they might have one maybe two D1 kids). Their coach told Nick Carroll that they were going to beat us by 30. Funny how delusional some of these AAU coaches are.