Hanging Judge or Soft on Crime?

Evaluating MVC Referees

(St. Louis, MO) – Despite what fans may think, Missouri Valley Conference referees are among some of the best in the nation. They don’t have a vendetta against certain teams or coaches and they don’t carry grudges. For the past three years we have charted the Valley ‘zebras’ to see who might be called a hanging judge or soft on crime?

We began this study to find out if the ‘homer calls’ were real and to evaluate who has the quick whistle or who ‘let’s them play’. The results may surprise you. We’ve talked to Valley coaches, run the numbers and used our own ‘eye test’.

Is retired police officer and Valley referee Gerry Pollard a hanging judge or soft on crime? We’ll try to show you!

Valley coaches universally agree that the best of college referees are those that are consistent in their judgements and agreeable for in-game communication from coaches of the teams for whom they are officiating.

It is interesting that the Valley shares referees with other (major) conferences through officiating consortiums and the league pays a premium to make sure the upper echelon officials are working MVC contests.

What Are Coaches Looking For?

We asked the league coaches a variety of questions related to officiating in general and attempted to unmask some of the assumptions we as fans and media members hold as basketball dogma. I failed on one major, strongly held belief. I’ll tell you what that was later in this article.

Consistency, consistency, consistency is what basketball coaches are desiring, or is it demanding? They want the same kind of contact to be called consistently on each end of the floor.

Communication is the other large longing coaches hold dear. An official that will listen and respond (within reason) to the coach’s concerns can heighten or diminish stress and confusion during in-game situations. Frustrated players and coaches also frustrate officials. Communication seems to be gigantic.

Bradley coach Brian Wardle says the Valley is fortunate to have veteran officials and he insists that his players hold their communication to a minimum and trust their coaches to handle the important conversations with officials.

 

 

Each Valley coach told us they believe the typical MVC official does a pretty good job. Belmont’s Casey Alexander notes there is a difference in the way individual leagues are officiated. We also asked Alexander about the commonly held notion of ‘letting the players decide the outcome’ and that game situations should dictate the way a game may be called.

 

 

Knowing The Referees

Fourteen different referees have worked at least ten MVC conference games. That doesn’t include non-conference nor MTE games. Heading into the final weekend, veteran Kelly Self has blown the whistle in 17 conference games. He is the Cal Ripken of MVC zebras. Another 18 officials have worked at least three MVC contests. Recognizable names are on this list.

Valley Commissioner Jeff Jackson is proud of the officials employed by the league and believes that Coordinator of Officials, Eddie Jackson does a great job of evaluating, scheduling and communicating with the league’s lawmen. Jackson notes that several of the league’s typical referees are selected to officiate March Madness and Final Four games.

Valley coaches get to know these officials and understand their tendencies, their personalities and how attempt valuable communication. Missouri State’s Dana Ford says his coaching staff ‘scouts’ those tendencies and a small part of their team preparation is to tell the players what to watch for.

 

 

Southern Illinois’ Bryan Mullins says he is aware of what officials typically call and how they desire to have conversations.

 

 

Urban Legends of Officiating

Whether they are a hanging judge, or soft on crime, conversations matter. We hear commentators say of coaches, ‘he’s working the ref’ or that certain players receive ‘star treatment’.

Evansville’s David Ragland says there is never a good time for getting a technical foul. While admitting that strategy could have a purpose, he doesn’t feel like it’s a good strategy for him. Former head coach (South Alabama) and current Indiana State assistant coach Matthew Graves says ‘working the refs’ could take on many forms of communication. Sarcasm and humor could be a part of cultivating respectful relationships in the midst of a tense college basketball game.

 

 

Drake’s Darian DeVries coaches preseason ‘player of the year’ Tucker DeVries. We asked if the younger DeVries receives ‘the star treatment’ and should stars be treated differently? Coach DeVries says at every level of basketball, officials know who are the best players. DeVries suggests officials don’t want those players to foul out of games. He points out that officiating is really hard and when reviewing tape, he often sees how the official was more accurate than he initially thought.

 

 

So-called ‘homer calls’ simply disappeared during the Covid-19 pandemic. We monitored numbers before and after the virus damaged so many lives and activities. Prior to 2020-21 there was a significant difference between the percentage of fouls called on visiting teams compared to the home squads.

During the 2020-21 season that changed and it has never reverted back to those pre-covid levels.

Who is the Hanging Judge? Who is Soft on Crime? 

Our statistics are based on the fouls called by an officiating crew. Who blew the whistle and made the call is impossible to track from our vantage point. However, some interesting trends emerge. Of the 14 most active MVC officials, five of them called the games within one foul (on average) between the home and road teams. Two zebras called more fouls on the team wearing white.

The average number of fouls called per game ranged from 13.1 per team to 19.1. Combining home and road numbers, the average number of fouls called per game begin as low as 28.3 and as high as 34.7. Of those most utilized officials, Jeff Campbell earns the crown as ‘hanging judge’ bringing home that 34.7 average.

We don’t believe more fouls is better or worse. Nor can we discern if an individual referee is the one making the bulk of the calls. Campbell’s crews also assigned at least 20 fouls in one game on one team a Valley-leading six times and his crew’s total of 47 overall fouls called was also a single game high. Twenty-seven of those came on one team. Self’s crew recorded the highest one team total of 28 fouls.

Who was seemingly ‘soft on crime’? Chance Moore averaged a measly 28.3 infractions per game. The only official of these most used, top 14 to never call at least 20 fouls on one team was veteran Ed Crenshaw.

Notable names not on our list for not working at least ten MVC conference games were Pollard, John Higgins and Kip Kissinger.

Arch Madness is Coming! 

While we agree with Commissioner Jackson and these coaches that the Valley engages quality referees, we love sitting court side at Arch Madness and hear the fans complain. That activity is part of the wonderful theater of college basketball.

We failed to ask the question about the alleged ‘make up call’. I apologize. This is one of the strongest held beliefs of all basketball fans.

Enjoy Arch Madness. Remember the people wearing the black and white stripes don’t have money riding on your team’s opponent and they don’t hate your coach.

Do Good

Cover Photo – Missouri Sports Hall of Fame.