You will need to mute Friday’s game

[JellyBean]

Dee Kantner is the rules analyst? Geeez

Thanks for the heads up. I definitely will have my volume down or off.

 

[Cuango]

With the exception of Lobo, I find most of the women’ crews pretty bad. However, it is the halftime and pregame shows, (again excepting Lobo who is calm, knowledgeable and informative) that I find truly horrendous! At least when the game is going on you can sort of tune out the inane remarks, but there is no distraction from the halftime crew!

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

In the event Rebecca Lobo and/or Ryan Ruocco (or anyone in their orbit) reads the Boneyard, here are some generic, non-pejorative questions I would love passed along to Dee for her to address during the game:

1. Referee Performance - How do referees improve their performance from game to game throughout the season?
2. Crew Composition - Who decides the composition of the three person crew for NCAA tournament games and what are the factors that go into that decision?
3. Referee Oversight - Who evaluates the performance of referees during the season, and when and how is it communicated? How does that change for the tournament?
4. SS, EE and FF Assignments - How important is it that assigned referees have prior in-season experience officiating games that involve participating teams, as opposed to having no exposure during the season. (I'm thinking seeing UConn for the first time.)
5. Game Adjustments - What do the refs talk about in their locker room prior to the game and, more importantly, do they collectively agree to make adjustments at half-time to whatever they decided prior to tip-off?
6. Official Reviews - How do they come to a decision - the majority rules or does it have to be unanimous?
7. Flopping or Embellishing - similar to reviews of possible non-observable flagrant fouls, should there be reviews during timeouts of players flopping or embellishing contact in order to draw fouls?
8. Offensive/Defensive Hand-checks - is there standardized criteria for evaluating hand-checks by both offensive players dribbling the ball (using their non-dribbling hand to ward of the defender) and defensive players brushing away the offensive player's non-dribbling hand?

Rebecca/Ryan, talk to your bosses. Dee can address these questions during official reviews or during time outs so as to not discuss during live play. There are four games with her before the Final Four. Two questions per game.

Go Huskies!

I too would be interested in some of your questions, but a few are not secrets. I forget who actually handles the NCAA tourney ref assignments, but the names are put forward by the various conferences. Of the 3 man crew on the court for most NCAA tournament games (at least the earlier ones, for sure) you will note that one ref is familiar with the weaker team and 2 refs familiar with the higher seeded team. Of course, in some cases, a ref knows both teams, but that's why some little known refs are on the court especially in early rounds. I do chart the refs in the tourney (and have a fairly good handle on where some of the high profile ones work).

As to in-season supervision, conferences have supervisors of officials. I think there are effectively only 3 of them, working for multiple conferences. Lisa Mattingly and Patty Broderick (who is in the WBB Hall of Fame) are 2 of them. There was an article last season detailing this and the issues with it.

Dee doesn't comment on these sorts of things. Just evaluating foul calls, fairly honestly so far as I can see. Back in 2000, she arranged tickets for us to see the Knicks in Portland while Rutgers was in the Portland regional (she was working the NBA at the time). So I'll definitely credit her as a nice person.

 

[JeannoCT]

Argh, Peck. What's the over/under on how long it takes her to mention Dawn, SC, Summit, or Tenn? I'm joking here, but ....

It’s no joke! I say about 5 minutes before she mentions Pat Summit.

 

[YKCornelius]

I too would be interested in some of your questions, but a few are not secrets. I forget who actually handles the NCAA tourney ref assignments, but the names are put forward by the various conferences. Of the 3 man crew on the court for most NCAA tournament games (at least the earlier ones, for sure) you will note that one ref is familiar with the weaker team and 2 refs familiar with the higher seeded team. Of course, in some cases, a ref knows both teams, but that's why some little known refs are on the court especially in early rounds. I do chart the refs in the tourney (and have a fairly good handle on where some of the high profile ones work).

As to in-season supervision, conferences have supervisors of officials. I think there are effectively only 3 of them, working for multiple conferences. Lisa Mattingly and Patty Broderick (who is in the WBB Hall of Fame) are 2 of them. There was an article last season detailing this and the issues with it.

Dee doesn't comment on these sorts of things. Just evaluating foul calls, fairly honestly so far as I can see. Back in 2000, she arranged tickets for us to see the Knicks in Portland while Rutgers was in the Portland regional (she was working the NBA at the time). So I'll definitely credit her as a nice person.

KnightBridgeAZ, thanks for the informative email. Great stuff. Sounds like you have an interest in officiating that goes beyond the normal WBB fan, as do I. Mine started as a Student Director of Intramural Athletics (at a certain state university in central New Jersey, by the way) almost half a century ago where I had to hire, train and evaluate officials in a variety of sports.

I also have been tracking referee assignments, but probably not to the extent you have. For years my focus was on assignment of NCAA tournament officials, but in the last 4-5 years I have expanded it to tracking refs assigned to UConn games, and have even gone backwards into historical files/boxscores to gather more data.

More recently, I have been comparing performance of about a dozen experienced referees in how they officiate USF games (I'm a season ticket holder) versus how they officiate UConn games. Purely subjective, and endeavoring to be unbiased!

I understand that Dee doesn't offer commentary on these aspects of officiating, but I think she should. I think it would be very well received by many fans of WCBB, and as long as it isn't perceived as aimed at any refs in the games, I don't see a downside.

Nothing but respect for Dee as a referee, and although she wouldn't necessarily be my model for all aspects of officiating, I think she was one of the best.

Go Huskies!

 

[DrummerDee]

You're a tough guy to please, trisailsin. But would you really like to live in a world w/out the Great Holly Rowe?

I would.

 

[Pharos]

She would be much better after a crash course in English grammar.

Sure... but I like her reality better than the pro "voices"

 

[AnonChoice]

Argh, Peck. What's the over/under on how long it takes her to mention Dawn, SC, Summit, or Tenn? I'm joking here, but ....

Exactly. Can't stand her commentary, laced with obvious biases. During Tennessee's abysmal appearances in both their Conference tournament and then in the first round of the NCAA, Peck was effusive in praise for the program, even said, absurdly, "This program is the gold standard in women's basketball." Right. What century are you in, coach?

 

[Fore!]

She would be much better after a crash course in English grammar.

Sadly, that can be said for the majority of pbp and analyst talent.

 

[cancontent]

I really wish they would transition Andraya Carter to color commentary for games, I know, she’s a Vol, but she has rapidly become one of my favorite announcers. I’d much rather listen to her than some of the other ones.

There's a trade off here if that were to happen. Who takes over her spot as part of the Game Day crew? Gut feeling would be that Peck gets first dibs.

 

[Fore!]

With the exception of Lobo, I find most of the women’ crews pretty bad. However, it is the halftime and pregame shows, (again excepting Lobo who is calm, knowledgeable and informative) that I find truly horrendous! At least when the game is going on you can sort of tune out the inane remarks, but there is no distraction from the halftime crew!

Unfortunately, Lobo’s monotone delivery hasn’t improved much over the years.

 

[fomalhaut]

I'm inclined to agree, though she does have a penchant for loquacity.

Or as Monty Python put it, she gives vent to her loquacity by extraneous bombastic circumlocution.

 

[fomalhaut]

Exactly. Can't stand her commentary, laced with obvious biases. During Tennessee's abysmal appearances in both their Conference tournament and then in the first round of the NCAA, Peck was effusive in praise for the program, even said, absurdly, "This program is the gold standard in women's basketball." Right. What century are you in, coach?

Usually that expression is metaphorical, but in this case quite accurate.

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

KnightBridgeAZ, thanks for the informative email. Great stuff. Sounds like you have an interest in officiating that goes beyond the normal WBB fan, as do I. Mine started as a Student Director of Intramural Athletics (at a certain state university in central New Jersey, by the way) almost half a century ago where I had to hire, train and evaluate officials in a variety of sports.

I also have been tracking referee assignments, but probably not to the extent you have. For years my focus was on assignment of NCAA tournament officials, but in the last 4-5 years I have expanded it to tracking refs assigned to UConn games, and have even gone backwards into historical files/boxscores to gather more data.

More recently, I have been comparing performance of about a dozen experienced referees in how they officiate USF games (I'm a season ticket holder) versus how they officiate UConn games. Purely subjective, and endeavoring to be unbiased!

I understand that Dee doesn't offer commentary on these aspects of officiating, but I think she should. I think it would be very well received by many fans of WCBB, and as long as it isn't perceived as aimed at any refs in the games, I don't see a downside.

Nothing but respect for Dee as a referee, and although she wouldn't necessarily be my model for all aspects of officiating, I think she was one of the best.

Go Huskies!

50 years ago I was an undergrad at a certain state university in central New Jersey. Sadly, with no interest in sports, including the hiring of TG as the first full time WBB Coach in the country.

I tracked the high profile coaches for quite a few years while we were following / attending Rutgers games, finding the amazing six to seven days a week that many worked across upwards to 10 conferences. Many of those refs have retired.

When we came to Tucson 15 years ago I tracked the PAC referees to a degree, to see what conferences they worked, finding that only like 7 of them ventured east of the Rockies. Big Sky, West Coast, Mountain West, etc. were common. And they all had a similar style as to fouls (beat someone up under the basket but don't touch their arm, for example).

Now, unlike you, I don't really look at how they specifically referee from team to team. For me and my way of thinking, there are way too many variables. Sure, there is bias of style of play and pre-conceived anticipation. Also preferences in style of play - so, by definition, it may be a (slight) advantage to some teams to have a particular ref. But it isn't a major factor.

By the way, I don't know about now, but a few years back the referees that worked the most were Roy Gulbeyan and Cameron Inoyue.

 

[Nyskier]

My least favorite announcers are Mowins and Antonelli. I had to mute them during an NC State game because they were so biased towards Tennessee. I only realized later that Antonelli is a State alumna. Go figure!