The SMS Boys varsity basketball team fell to the Lawrence Lions Friday Feb. 7 by a score of 65-61 in what may prove to be a Sunflower League Championship deciding game. Unfortunately, the main story in this game was not the final score. Most fans left this game talking not about an impressive LHS performance or a mediocre SMS performance but instead, a horrendous showing by the officials.

The total foul count for the game was 48. The Raiders receiving 26 and the Lions 22. In a high school game with 8 minute quarters that averages out to 1 foul every 40 seconds. If that alone doesn’t at least hint that the officials had a little too much involvement in the game’s course of events then I don’t know what does. This game wasn’t overly physical and neither team was playing aggressive enough to reach a foul count that high. Along with the fouls, the fans ended up watching the two teams shoot a total of 67 free throws. The Raiders going 17-25 and the Lions 31-42.

To be fair, the foul calls were sub-par on both ends. The officials were inconsistent and touchy. They called fouls that included very little contact and in turn, didn’t call fouls that included a lot of contact. But even though the foul count looks relatively even, that doesn’t tell the whole story. LHS had a lot of fouls called on them late in what I would consider less crucial parts of the game. The Raiders fell behind early and were fighting to get back in it for the remainder of competition. The constant breaks in play were enough to break the game’s rhythm, making it a painful show to watch.

However, bad foul calls were the least of the referee’s worries in this one. The officials held themselves in an extremely unprofessional manner throughout the entirety of the game and gave a flat out embarrassing performance. Senior PG Devin Newsome was pulled from the competition by the referee’s demands for a partially untucked jersey not once, but twice, forcing inexperienced sophomore backup, Connor Hill, to check in until the next dead ball. Yes, it is a rule so technically the referee was within his rights to do this but it’s a call that, according to the rule book, is at the referee’s discretion. This means that the referee doesn’t have to call it, but if he’s feeling a bit prankish, he can. It is something that Head Coach Brett McFall admits he’s never seen in his nine years coaching at SMS.

Next on the list of atrocities is the ref’s multiples encounters with McFall throughout the game. The whole gym witnessed an official get right in McFall’s grill for disagreeing with a call. This turned into a bit of a hissy fit from our zebra friend and from the stands it was pretty evident that at least half of that screaming battle was coming out of the official’s mouth, in what almost appeared to be an attempt to bait McFall into saying something he’d regret.

In a game of this magnitude it’s easy to understand why a player or coach may yell, scream or lash out in some form, but what’s a referee’s excuse. Their job isn’t on the line with the final result. And if there is some excuse that someone could come up with, then find me a good one where a ref gets to call a group of student athletes a*******, because that’s what happened in this one. After a couple quarters of bad officiating and flimsy rule enforcement, this referee goes up to McFall and says, “you’re players are acting like a*******,” and McFall turns to SMS Athletic Director, John Johnson, in anger but with a disbelieved smile on his face and yells, “Did you hear that?”

Senior PF Hunter Ahrens confirmed the referee’s actions saying, “I heard him say it, I was right there.”

The Raiders were also awarded two controversial technicals. The first being given to junior SF DeAngelo Bruster. The call was officially made because of Bruster tipping the ball away from the basket after he scored a bucket. This rule is not usually enforced unless it takes place in an unsporting fashion, which I don’t believe it was. It’s also common to see communication between the player and official before making this kind of call, there wasn’t.

“Typically they do [warn them] but they don’t have to.” Johnson said.

The worst part about this is that Bruster was clearly fouled on the play and should have been awarded an and-one free throw. Instead, we were forced to watch the Lions get two free-bees. Three points robbed from the Raiders at another crucial part of the game.

The second technical was awarded to junior SG Dainan Swoope after he fouled-out. He walked by the referee and without stopping or making any direct confrontation he said, “Alright dude” and there wasn’t a single moment’s hesitation before the official handed out another technical to the Raiders and he almost seemed too excited to do so. I don’t argue that the official was technically breaking any rules in this situation but still, no curse words, no direct challenging, no yelling and barely complaining. If that really deserves a technical then there should have been about 50 more handed out that night.

In these kinds of games fans usually point to one or two stretches of play where the calls were bad but not in this one. It was bad the full 32 minutes. And Coach McFall still did his job with great class and represented SMS in the best possible way in a situation like this. In my opinion, he only got mad when he truly had a right to be upset and his getting upset was more of him standing up for his players than it was him showing emotion. If McFall didn’t get in the referee’s ears at least once, then I would have viewed that as a mistake in his coaching performance.

After the game there was some action on twitter about what went on in Lawrence that night. A Freshman and Sophomore coach for the Raider Basketball program between the years of 2009 and 2012, Dave Hillmon tweeted, “Just a reminder to my frustrated followers: No one ever goes into Lawrence and doesn’t feel slighted by the refs at any level. #homecookin’”

Along with that, senior Crowd Control member Austin Giannola made it clear that he was displeased by tweeting, “Wors[t] reffed game of basketball I have ever seen in my life. We didn’t lose they didn’t win. I would love to see a good reffed game.”

Neither the SMS Athletic Director or the Head Coach had anything to comment about the officiating after the game and made it clear that from their positions, getting involved in a conversation about referees is “unwise.”

In the end, whether you think the officials were out of line or not, it’s impossible to argue that they weren’t noticed. In a profession where you’re goal is to remain invisible, these refs were seen by all. Most everyone walked out of that gymnasium remembering the performance of the old guys in stripes, not the student athletes in red or green.