Posted on Sun, Feb. 10, 2008

NOTEBOOK

Reminder from referees: officiating is 'not a science

By Jerry Tipton

HERALD-LEADER STAFF WRITER

Jerry Tipton

To review: Kentucky guard Derrick Jasper delicately fouls Tennessee's Ramar Smith from behind to prevent a breakaway layup. The referees call an intentional foul. Gerald Boudreaux, the Southeastern Conference's coordinator of men's officials, explains that the NCAA emphasized calling fouls intentional if they are from behind on a breakaway.

Eleven days later, Georgia's Dave Bliss trails the play, but prevents a breakaway layup by sending UK's Ramel Bradley flying. A foul, but not intentional.

Huh?

Perpetually concerned UK fans wonder how similar plays can be called two ways.

Boudreaux, who attended UK's game against Alabama, watched replays and saw Bliss swiping at the ball from the left side of Bradley. Thus, no intentional foul. Fans can debate the merit of that view.

Don Rutledge, a longtime SEC referee and now one of Boudreaux's two assistants, got to the heart of the matter.

"When I officiated, it was an art," he said. "It was not a science."

Feel, judgment and intuition play a role in officiating. How a play is called matters. It's not a right/wrong business.

"With money and video and DVDs, they're trying to make it into a science, which they'll never do," said Rutledge, whose self-assurance and grace made each of his calls seem correct. "Refereeing is never going to be black and white. You're going to have the judgment of the referees involved, and rightfully so ...

"I don't think officiating will ever be a science where you draw black and white lines. Because black and white lines are small. The gray area is so big."

On Friday, Bradley intimated a conspiracy by the officials against Kentucky. If a Georgia player had been fouled from behind, the referees would have called an intentional foul on UK, he said.

No doubt that opinion will feed paranoia among some UK fans. The calls in the Tennessee and Georgia game prompted one fan to e-mail the suggestion that the referees conspire against Kentucky. Another said the refs prevent UK from showing its "greatness."

Another of Boudreaux's assistants, former referee Andre Pattillo, scoffed at the idea of a conspiracy of officials. He suggested the zeal of UK fans blinds them to the truth.

"You can have the perfect call," Pattillo said. "If it's against Kentucky, you get booed out of the gym."

Rutledge called the idea of a conspiracy against UK "absolutely absurd."

"Fans are fans," he said. "They all feel persecuted."

And UK fans are nothing special when it comes to a persecution complex.

"I do hear some of the same things from a number of schools in the conference," Boudreaux said. "Sometimes, fans think they're the only ones that feel that way."

Good idea/better idea

Auburn has taken a good idea and made it better.

Like many schools, Auburn participated in the Coaches vs. Cancer fund-raiser last weekend. Coaches wear gym shoes to bring attention to efforts to raise money to fight cancer.

Auburn raised about $7,000 for the cause this year. But Coach Jeff Lebo sent out letters to high schools in Alabama asking them to stage similar promotions. Proceeds go to the American Cancer Society. Lebo included a self-addressed envelop and instructions on how to make a donation.

As of last week, the donations included $1,200 from White Plains High and $3,700 from Houston Academy.

Gillispie on Brady

UK Coach Billy Gillispie saw a message in LSU's abrupt firing of John Brady: More than ever, it's a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately world.

"I guess that's the way it is," Gillispie said. "We all make way too much money. It's all 'What have you done for me today?' That's understandable because of all the money we make. We should produce."

Brady produced. Only two years ago, he guided LSU to the Final Four. That marked the Tigers' first Final Four appearance since 1986, and only the fourth in school history. He inherited a program saddled with NCAA penalties in the wake of the Lester Earl recruitment scandal.

Brady rebuilt the program and won SEC titles with players like Stromile Swift and later Glen "Big Baby" Davis and Tyrus Thomas.

Gillispie noted how LSU had played well against his Texas A&M teams. LSU beat the Aggies 58-57 in the 2006 NCAA Tournament, then beat A&M 64-52 in a regular-season game last season.

"They were very sound," the UK coach said before adding, "You have to do it every single day. That seems a bit much. But when you factor in the money, people are able to make those kind of (decisions)."

Pelphrey checks ego

Former UK player John Pelphrey uses self-deprecating humor to good effect. On an SEC coaches' teleconference on Monday, he played along with a light-hearted question: What impact did his departure from Florida have on the Gators winning back-to-back national titles?

"Tremendous, tremendous," said Pelphrey, a Florida assistant for six seasons before taking the head coaching job at South Alabama. Now he's in his first season at Arkansas.

"You know the history of this thing," Pelphrey said. "I left Paintsville, and they won a state championship and played for another, in basketball and baseball. I get out of the way (as an assistant) at Oklahoma State, and they go to the Final Four. I get out of the way at Florida, and they win a couple of national championships.

"I hope Arkansas doesn't know what's happened with my past, because it could mean bad things for me here."

Actually, things are going great for Arkansas. Going into this week, the Razorbacks had won three straight league games by 15 or more points. That hadn't happened for the program since 1990-91, when Arkansas won four in a row by that margin in the old Southwest Conference.

Assistant coach Rob Evans noted how Pelphrey does not let ego get in the way.

"You ask him about his playing days and he'll tell you he overachieved and was fortunate to be at Kentucky, but he was a heck of a player," Evans told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. "He'll tell the players, 'Hey, I'm not the greatest coach in the world, but I will tell you this, you're going to get everything I've got every single day.'"

Promoting the game

Auburn's Tip-Off Club invited UK Coach Billy Gillispie to speak at a luncheon meeting the day of Kentucky's game against the Tigers.

When Gillispie declined, the Club invited me. Another case of wanting George Clooney and getting Dennis Kucinich. The Lexington Rotary Club experienced the same deflating sensation in October.

Auburn Coach Jeff Lebo noted that the school had the best such club in the SEC. More importantly, Auburn's Tip-Off Club helps promote basketball in a football-mad region of the country.

More than once at the SEC Spring Meetings, Lebo has urged his fellow coaches to participate in such Tip-Off Clubs as a means to generate greater enthusiasm in basketball.

His colleagues mostly turn a deaf ear to Lebo's urgings. Only four SEC coaches regularly speak to the Auburn Tip-Off Club. Here are the four along with a comment.

• of Tennessee. No surprise. He won a public relations award in his first season at UT. If P.R. skill were a horse race, Pearl would be Secretariat winning the Belmont.

• Kevin Stallings of Vanderbilt. Seemingly a surprise. He's not known as an inviting personality. He comes across as intensely competitive, but he can be engaging and fun.

• of South Carolina. The SEC's Mr. Nice Guy is so verbal that his opening statements at news conferences are affectionately known in media circles as a pre-ramble.

• Dennis Felton of Georgia. Perhaps he sympathizes with a fellow basketball coach's desire to create a buzz.

Small crowd

As if on cue, Auburn announced a crowd of 5,352 for that night's game against Kentucky.

Outside of games in Maui, Puerto Rico and Alaska, that marked the smallest crowd to watch UK play since Dec. 10, 2002. That's when 5,216 saw UK play Tulane in the New Orleans Arena.

The crowd at Auburn was the smallest to watch Kentucky in an SEC game in 21 years. A crowd of 4,714 watched UK play at Mississippi State on Jan. 12, 1987.

Going into this weekend, Auburn had the lowest average home attendance (4,590) of any SEC team. The next lowest was Mississippi at 7,294.

Helping, er, hand?

Reader Ed Cook sent advice for UK guard Joe Crawford in how to deal with plantar fasciitis (pain in the bottom of the foot). Cook, a retired coach and athletic director in Pulaski County, noted the futility of mind-over-matter measures.

"I have suffered from that condition (both feet) and have found that this condition doesn't give a rodent's anterior about how much strength of character and will power you have," Cook wrote in an e-mail. "It hurts!"

Cook first became afflicted with the ailment while pheasant hunting in North Dakota in 2004. He asked that advice he received from Lexington physician Jeff Neal be passed along to Crawford. The advice:

• Find lightweight shoes that fit well.

• Line the shoes with a gel-like insole that doesn't allow your feet to slide within the shoe.

• DO NOT go barefoot at any time. For those occasions when Crawford does not wear gym shoes, Cook recommended the Crocs brand shoes with providing soft support.

Cook, 63, is a retired coach, athletic director, and assistant superintendent of Pulaski County Schools. He coached an eighth grader named Reggie Hanson.

In retirement, he devotes his time to golf and "the pursuit of most kinds of waterfowl."

Healthcare in America

Dick Vitale had a physician travel with him to the Georgetown-Louisville game. The physician operated a device that monitored how much Vitale used his vocal cords.

Reader Gregg Fisher had a problem with that.

"Healthcare in America at its best," Fisher wrote in a sarcastic e-mail. "Vitale's doctor is traveling with him to monitor his throat? Only in America!!!!!!!!!"

Fisher, 59, is a middle school teacher. He considers himself a UK fan, but he graduated from Western Kentucky (1978) and Georgetown College (2004).

Good riddance

Columnist Kevin Scarbinsky of The Birmingham News noted Bob Knight's good qualities. The winningest coach in men's college basketball didn't choke all his players or throw every chair he saw.

Knight, who retired last week, also counted elder statesmen like Gene Bartow and C.M. Newton among his friends, Scarbinsky wrote.

Yet, Knight did treat some people shabbily: kicking a player, head-butting another, verbally abusing a moderator of an NCAA Tournament news conference, generally not caring a bit about the other person's feelings.

"They say Knight retired Monday, in part, because he didn't want a farewell tour," Scarbinsky wrote. "Good for him. No matter how many games he won, he didn't deserve one."

200 Club

When his team beat Alabama on Wednesday, Mississippi State's Rick Stansbury became the 20th SEC coach to reach the 200-victory mark. He took a 200-111 career record into Saturday's game at Auburn.

Happy birthday

To Ramel Bradley. He turned 23 on Tuesday.

No doubt Bradley has had better birthdays. He contracted a viral infection the week before. He suffered a concussion the weekend before.

"Just a terrible weekend," he said. "I got sick. Then it was my birthday, and I had to go to Auburn (for Wednesday's game). Not getting any gifts."

When asked if he meant literally no birthday gifts, Bradley said, "No gifts."