GU's record by Official in the JT3 era

[FLHoya]

Long story short, all the talk (or, if you're a UConn or Cuse fan or Luke Harangody, WHINING) after the last few games about officiating reminded me of something I saw on a Kentucky fan site a couple years ago. Somebody went back over a decent period of time and found out what UK's record was when certain officials worked their games.

I went back through the box scores of the JT3 era (2004-yesterday)--not that hard or time consuming if you have media guides. I think it came to 83 different officials have worked a GU game during that timeframe. 21 of those have worked SEVEN or more GU games since 2004--they're all current or former members of the Big East Officials Bureau.

In order of best winning percentage, here they are:


Brian Kersey 10-1 (.909)

Jeff Clark 10-1 (.909)

Thomas Lopes 7-1 (.875)

Brian O'Connell 7-1 (.875)

Mike Roberts 6-1 (.857)

Mike Stuart 6-1 (.857)

Frank Scagliotta 6-1 (.857)

Pat Driscoll 11-3 (.786)

Mike Stephens 7-2 (.777)

Reggie Greenwood 9-3 (.750)

Paul Faia 6-2 (.750)

Jim Haney 6-2 (.750)

Jim Burr 10-4 (.714)

Ted Hillary 5-2 (.714)

John Cahill 10-5 (.667)

Joe Lindsay 5-3 (.625)

Ed Corbett 8-5 (.615)

Bob Donato 9-7 (.563)

Mike Kitts 14-11 (.560)

Gary Prager 3-4 (.428)

Curtis Shaw 2-5 (.286)



Other random observations:

--Tim Higgins hasn't refereed a GU game since JT3 was hired (because of his brother, right?)

--Kitts has by FAR the most GU games officiated with 25 compared to the next most (Cahill with 15). Kitts last season managed to officiate two non-conference games, three Big East games, the BET Finals, the BC game, and the Ohio State game.

--And funny enough, Kitts has already officiated 5 GU games this year, including both losses (Cahill is next with 4, all wins).

--We were rather randomly 6-0 when Jim Burr officiated last season, 6-1 with Driscoll, and 6-2 with Donato.

--We haven't had Driscoll or Greenwood for a game this season.

--We are 0-3 in games involving Ted Valentine or Karl Hess.



So what does this all prove?

Ummmmm...you tell me.

After all that I still think that although individual officials have certain recognizable tendencies, the changing three man crews and opponents make the whole thing completely random. I've looked before at crews for some of our "controversial" games and sometimes the same person will be on a crew that "screwed" us and one that did us a huge favor.

If nothing else, if you were in East Rutherford last year you probably laughed when you saw Curtis Shaw on the bottom of that list.

[GIGAFAN99]

Laughed isn't the word. We all know it, the NCAA knows it, and everyone else knows it. It's an absolute scandal.

[SirSaxa]

FLHoya -- thanks for posting that info. It is VERY interesting and enlightening.

I believe all three of us -- FLHoya, Giga and I -- were in East Rutherford last year -- along with a lot of other regular posters.

That was an unbelievable performance by the refs. Remember JT3's technical for "bench decorum"?? his second technical of the entire season, in a game for the Final Four? Without those two FTs for UNC, we never have to go to OT.

Fortunately, the bad apples are the exceptions. most of the refs do a good, and even-handed job.

[jacko]

Since we're talking about officials and sort of talking about that bogus bench decorum call last year, I thought I'd mention one thing I noticed last night:

Last night late in the second half of the OSU/UT game the refs gave a bench decorum warning because many of the UT players were standing. I was especially suspicious of this call, since bench decorum was supposed to be one of those "points of emphasis" this year, right? Why wouldn't they just give them a T and make the full out call? Because you can warn them and get your point across without tainting the game. So I think they did the right thing last night. Now, tainting a regular season game and an Elite 8 game are two entirely different things. That's even if you want to use a word as strong as "taint," though. I surely do.

[vcjack]

The T against JTIII was far more damaging than just 2 points for UNC, it killed the momentum we had at that point and we could have taken the lead

It would be interesting to narrow down these records to just games decided by less than 10 points, because that is where the decisions of the refs are all the more crucial (The goaltend in the UConn game, Jeff's "travel")

[Locker]

Great stuff, FL. Shaw was the name I was looking for as I perused the list. Lo and behold....

If you have it handy, can you tell us what the other 6 games he worked were?

[I Bleed Hoya Gray]

Basketball State (bbstate.com) has a lot of interesting stuff on refs too. I try to look it at every once in a while, but since I've never subscribed (something like 24 bucks for a year) I get kicked out after too many clicks. But it tracks the refs and what games they've done and google maps the locations, and it averages the number of fouls per game and stuff.

Too bad you have to pay for that though.

[bubbrubbhoya]

Is there any way to find out the names of refs before the games? This would be some pretty good fan information.

[royski]

And overly good betting information, hence why they dont make that public I would guess.

[bubbrubbhoya]

Jan 23, 2008 9:19:55 GMT -5 royski said:

And overly good betting information, hence why they dont make that public I would guess.

Oh, right...good call. Thanks for the heads up, too, as in my ignorance of the betting angle, I was probably treading thin ice on this board. Wouldn't want any posts that might possibly perhaps maybe could be construed as betting related.

Sorry..don't want to derail the thread, but I couldn't help it.

[ExcitableBoy]

Jan 23, 2008 10:08:12 GMT -5 bubbrubbhoya said:

Sorry..don't want to derail the thread.

I think you do.

[StPetersburgHoya (Inactive)]

Jan 23, 2008 10:26:31 GMT -5 ExcitableBoy said:

Jan 23, 2008 10:08:12 GMT -5 bubbrubbhoya said:

Sorry..don't want to derail the thread.

I think you do.

I bet he did too.

[Gold Hoya]

Surprised we only have 1 loss with gray puffy hair. The only name that didn't look even vaguely familiar was Gary Prager - what do you know about him, FL?

You should pass this over to one of the new Hoya blogs to format, embed links, and post.

Meanwhile, here's all of this year's officials: statsheet.com/mcb/referees/browse_team/georgetown

[Jack]

Prager is one of the younger, more fit guys, relatively short in stature. Dark hair buzzcut last I saw him.

Surprised not to see Doug Shows on the list of 7+ games. Seemed like we had him a lot in the Esh era, though I don't recall seeing him recently. Must be exclusive to SEC and ACC these days.

And Curtis Shaw is disgraceful

[HoyaDestroya02]

is there a way to parse this data to make it reflect close games or games that should be close?

[ExcitableBoy]

What would be extremely interesting to see is some sort of statistical comparison that takes the opponent into consideration when looking at records of individual referees.

Could it be that Kersey's and Clark's games were all (suspiciously) against teams we should beat handily? Could it also be that--in spite of his uncanny ability to almost blow the UNC game--Shaw's games came against quality opponents?

Just a heretical thought or two

[Gold Hoya]

The other Shaw win was the 2006 GU @ ND game where Bowman pulled the foul-on-a-made-3-with-a-4-point-lead stunt. I just about knocked over a garbage can in the Oakland airport when Summers tried to reprise it the other night.

[jumbo7676]

Interesting to see that JTIII manages to win only 56% of his 25 games officiated by Mike Kitts. Back in 2003, Mike Kitts was officiating the game that led to Craig Esherick's famous post-game tirade on the officials. You think Mike Sweetney's back doesn't hurt?! That same year, Mike Kitts was officiating the game against Seton Hall when they put 6 players on the court and took the lead with 6.4 seconds left in the game. We managed to tie it with 2 second sleft, despite 6 men on defense, but lost in OT.

[DanMcQ]

The best thing about that list is that Karl Hess has only reffed 3 Hoya games since 2004.

[hoyaparanoia33]

Jan 23, 2008 11:44:21 GMT -5 Gold Hoya said:

The other Shaw win was the 2006 GU @ ND game where Bowman pulled the foul-on-a-made-3-with-a-4-point-lead stunt. I just about knocked over a garbage can in the Oakland airport when Summers tried to reprise it the other night.

Maybe it was not entirely Bowman's fault. Shaw hates us, and he always tries to be the center of attention, and Falls was a notorious flopper. A self-respecting ref doesn't make that call. Now, maybe Bowman should have been nowhere the shooter, but that is a different story. Fact is, Shaw is more to blame than Bowman on that play, even though B has some blame. Thank goodness we won in OT. or was it double OT?