Marty i think offensive interference only exists in the NBA.

Here's one Marty and I were discussing at the game on Saturday - not directly referee related, but upon a defensive foul being called, the offensive team would get a side ball AND a reset of the shot clock? This happened twice on Saturday (both to Adelaide and South) and I'm sure that a defensive foul is not worthy of a shot clock reset...

Did I miss a memo? this seems ass backwards, why should the team get an X number of extra seconds just because the defense committed a foul?

What are your thoughts on a foot violation then?

OK, I just looked it up myself.

"Stopped and reset to twenty-four (24) seconds, with no display visible, as soon as:
" An official blows his whistle for a foul or violation."

Never mind.

Black Dracula, Of course the shot clock resets when there is a defensive foul. The rule pretty much exists in any league, from seniors right down to juniors.

Well done on pointing it out after I'd actually sought out the answer myself.

/facepalm

I think the refereeing standard has been getting worse every season and has been absolutely appaling this season. I wouldn't be suprised if it's been part of the reason the crowds are declining. I don't know if everyone else has felt very frustrated at the end of some games but i have. I wouldn't mind them getting calls wrong if they were consistant with it and call the same calls at both ends. I am sick of them turning a blind eye at big fouls and then calling all the soft fouls it disrupts the game and confuses the players.No wonder the players can't focus on the game they are to busy wondering why the push they recieve isn't a foul and the little nudge they caused was.

It is always easy to have a go at the refs, but this year has been by far the worst. Not just because Sixers are losing - they are just plain bad - inconsistent at both ends. Perhaps the pre-game discussion should be about getting the standard and not about what they are doing after the game!!
Two local refs in particular - you know who you are - bloody terrible!!

Well this post has just confirmed that the fans don't know the rules.

It's been going downghill for the past 3 years. Crowds are declining and frustrated. Players don't know what do to and how to play for the fear of foul trouble.

Too much one sided crap.

Lack of consistency

Refs dislike and refuse to clarify fouls.

Too many soft fouls called.

Refs sometimes hand out technicals pre-mature. Look @ the one Hodge copped on Saturday.

The one decent Ref I liked was a fat ugly man with facial hair named Robby.

I liked Caroline. I told her what to do 1 game, & she had a baby.
Some refs listen.

Dumb Dumb Fan I read your question. I can only say that I would love to give you a foot violation!, hard! I await the dumb dumb (t)witty answer as always.

THE REFS ARE PATHETIC, INCONSISTANT, UNSURE AND THEY CONSTANTLY MAKE CALLS THEY THINK BUT DID NOT SEE. THERE NEEDS TO BE A STANDARD AND SOMETHING TO KEEP THEM ACCOUNTABLE, THE REFS HAVE RUINED 3 GAMES THIS SEASON AT HOME ATLEAST.

Dumb Dumb Fan:

"Dumb Dumb Fan I read your question. I can only say that I would love to give you a foot violation!, hard!"

Go for it Dumb Dumb.

-------------------------------

Dumb Dumb Fan:

"I await the dumb dumb (t)witty answer as always"

Done.

DDFan I actually thought your comment about Caroline was really clever and funny, so please ignore everyone else!

I don't think Haines is a problem, I actually think he's a great ref. The worst performances this season have been from the interestate guys (Hunt, that guy from Saturday night).

It might seem like a step backwards, but would cutting back to two refs improve the standard? It seems as though in every game (here and interestate) there is always one very suspect member of each crew, and it is my opinion that this one will drag the other two down, and hence the standard of the game with it. Less teams in the league this year has meant stronger rosters for most teams with a greater depth of talent, so why wouldn't the same thing occur with the refs?

I'll risk exposing my ignorance on this and put in my 2 penny worth. I think it's worth doing because I think I'm the sort of outside-looking-in fan that the league would like to get coming along to games. I played a little basketball in the past (6 or 7 seasons) but only socially and I'm pretty rubbish as a player. I've played and refereed similar court sports (to national level) but not basketball.

I used to be a 36ers season ticket holder, from 1985 to 1998 and dropped it for several reasons - young family, the move to a summer season some frustration with the NBL product. I still go to 2-3 games a season. This makes me part of the generation of people who were attracted to the NBL through the mid 1980s to mid 1990s period of growth and who subsequently stopped going to NBL games from the mid 1990s.

I have always had issues with the standard of refereeing but one of the reasons behind my loss of interest in going to NBL games was that the standard of the players and coaching had improved substantially but the standard of refereeing had not kept pace with that. I felt it had reached the point where the rate of mistakes by referees had far exceeded the rate of mistakes by players.

The couple of games I've seen each year since and particularly this year led me to think that the standard has fallen even further. When my son has asked me why some contact was being called a foul and other contact was not, I couldn't explain how either the umpire might not have seen one contact or might have seen it differently to the other.

In contrast, when we went to a few SANFL games (again 2-3) this season, I was quite comfortable explaining to him what might have led to similar disparities in umpiring decisions through the football games. It was easy to spot when none of the umpires could see the holding or pushing or to use my basic knowledge of the rules (I was a social footballer too and not an umpire) to explain why the umpire saw one situation differently to the other.

To my mind, this underlines a problem with attractiveness of NBL to new fans who aren't die hard basketball addicts. Either the referees are mostly really bad or the interpretation guidelines they have to follow are making it really hard for the audience to understand their decisions. Either way, there's a problem with the product for people who are making discretionary decisions about whether to go to NBL or soccer or football or just to stay home and watch RockWiz. If you know that going week after week will just lead to a build-up of frustration, you'll limit your exposure, as I've chosen to.

As to solutions, perhaps that's part of the plan for the new NBL - lots of money to pay refs at NBL level will provide a mechanism, for making refereeing a career path of value. That should attract more refs to the sport and put pressure on the top level to perform better as there will be more aspirants for their jobs. That then needs to be coupled with a transparent system of referee performance assessment and review. Transparent to refs, clubs and fans. e.g., a panel reviewing refs' performance each round, providing feedback to the refs themselves and to whatever NBL rules' committee is in place, standing down refs when they have done really poorly (you know, like a player getting anchored to the bench after a bad game), reporting of when they've been stood down (like we all now know why Winitana got no game time last week), reporting of rules' or interpretations' issues and how they've been addressed. I don't know if any of this happens now. If it does, then either it supports my point about transparency or I just haven't happened across the NBL press releases about it.

The NBL itself is not what it once was.

The League doesn't have the funds it once did and that has resulted in deficencies across the board.

I'm pretty sure NBL referee not only receive less money in payment now than 5-10 years ago but also less development and training.

In the 90s the NBL bought video editing software for the purposes of referee development. They employed Gary Fox to oversee refereeing across the league.

Now the NBL has a volunteer putting together rosters based on feedback from evaluators (again volunteers) and state associations (most cases more volunteers).

No referees get the level of training they used to in the NBL, the video editing software and footage has disappeared and expectations have lowered.

The 'names' in NBL refereeing Mildenhall, Hunt, Shields are not the refs they used to be.

The next bunch Butler, Aylen, Mayberry, Giersch and co have at best stagnated and probably get more from self evaluating than anything they receive from the league itself.

Budget cuts have also forced the League to always use two local referees (and sometimes three) as the league can't afford to fly referees around Australia (or pay the referee enough to make the time to do so).

The NBL need to take a whole new approach to refereeing in general.
IMO they need to consider:
A full-time referee commisioner role (as per every other major code in Australia).
Put in place a structured and intense development/training program that every referee in the league needs to take part in (whether they're 25 or 60).
Make game evaluations tougher, tighter and review every game played.
Follow up errors and bench referees who constantly under perform, no matter who they are.
Look to employ the best referees full time. Send them across the country refereeing 2 or 3 times a week.
Make them responsible for the teaching of their peers and researching referee developments and techniques across the world. Make them responsible for the teaching of the next group of referees to ensure they are ready to referee at NBL as soon as they get their opportunity.
More games refereed by the best in the league means less referees who are not at the level required.

Last but most importantly the NBL and BA need to spend 10 times the amount of money they currently do on officiating. Education needs more funding, fitness training needs more funding, referees need better pay, pay for the best to travel to the best games.

Across every level from NBL to beginers officiating doesn't receive the funding it needs. NBL, BA and the State Associations need to work harder and spend more. Widen the base and you'll get better quality people at the top of the pyramid.

The local refs appear to be bending so far over backwards to avoid accusations of bias in favour of the home team that they end up becoming effectively biased *against* the home team.

At the end of the day, all players and fans want is consistency. The best way to get consistency is to have an 'if you see it, call it' instruction to the refs: don't give them any leeway to apply their own interpretations as to whether something's a foul or not.

This might lead to some over-calling and ugly games at first, but once players adjust (and they will adjust, if they don't want to foul out) we might get back to watching basketball rather than some hybrid game that at times more closely resembles WWF. Less frustration all round.

One of the reason's the refereeing has gone down this year also is that there are fewer level 1 officials in the league this season as well. Thus the overall experience of the league has decreased due to 1400 games retiring. Whether you liked them or hated them the loss of Weeks in Adelaide, Bignall in Brisbane and to a lesser degree Thiesz in Melbourne has bought about rookie officials coming onto the panel. The two old guys may have been past their best but they knew how to control games and run a pre-game to get everyone on the same page.

Currently there are on 9 level 1 referee's going around out of a panel of approx 40. That's only 20% of the panel. As previously stated until some money is spent on training and development these lesser experienced are going to make mistakes until they have done 50 or so games. If you add to that some limited availability of the level one guys through work committments etc your Crew chief pool is very slim. Eg, Butler has a professional job and cant travel outside of Queensland mid-week. 3 teams in QLD means he doesnt leave the state anyway. Mayberry has moved from Cairns to Brisbane but again limited travel due to starting a new job and 3 teams in qld is generally needed there. Thats QLD. NSW only has Shiels and Giersch. Both are able to travel so they get used extensively. Vic, Aylen, Mildenhall and Hunt. Hunt and Mildebhall are available for travel but Aylen is having a no-travel season for personal reasons. There are no level ones in Adelaide, only 1 in Perth and thats Cambell and thats more for Geographical reasons and there is Godden in NZ.

So when you look at it they can only travel 4 of the 9 everywhere and restricted travel for 4 others. Doesnt leave much room to move when appointing to games.

Until the league spend which wont happen. The standard is going to take some lumps until the playoffs start and only the best referee's referee. Cos during the regular season your never going to see 2 level ones on a game cos its just not possible due to availability and lack of funding.