The rona sending March Madness refs home

[FredFan7]

[russ]

That's very tough for both those Officials and the NCAA. 4 of the 6 Officials had worked at least one Final 4, with Valentine and Higgins working many, and all 6 have worked at least 2 Elite 8's in their careers. Big losses on the court.

This is a weird situation in that it is probably not a good idea to eat at a restaraunt as a group of 6 when you are supposed to be quarantining until games start. But their rooms weren't ready and they were told they were allowed to go out to get food. This is a situation where it is easy to throw blame at a lot of people but I think it is more bad luck than anything that their rooms weren't ready and one of the 6 most likely already had COVID when he arrived.

Another interesting tidbit from the articles is that this year they are only going with 60 on court Officials rather than usual 100. I was wondering if they would use fewer Officials initially since they will all be in the same general area. It makes a lot of sense but that also means we will probably see many regular Tournament Officials who were still Tournament worthy this season left out. It stinks for those guys but it is a strange season and difficult choices have to be made. That also means many Officials will be working back to back days. Since they are all in the same state it is certainly manageable and most Officials work many days in a row throughout the season. My guess is the first Round will be odd with many Officials working multiple games a round but by the time the Round of 32 rolls around it will be back to normal with 48 Officials working on the court.

[howard63]

Mar 16, 2021 9:49:46 GMT -5 russ said:

That's very tough for both those Officials and the NCAA. 4 of the 6 Officials had worked at least one Final 4, with Valentine and Higgins working many, and all 6 have worked at least 2 Elite 8's in their careers. Big losses on the court.

This is a weird situation in that it is probably not a good idea to eat at a restaraunt as a group of 6 when you are supposed to be quarantining until games start. But their rooms weren't ready and they were told they were allowed to go out to get food. This is a situation where it is easy to throw blame at a lot of people but I think it is more bad luck than anything that their rooms weren't ready and one of the 6 most likely already had COVID when he arrived.

Another interesting tidbit from the articles is that this year they are only going with 60 on court Officials rather than usual 100. I was wondering if they would use fewer Officials initially since they will all be in the same general area. It makes a lot of sense but that also means we will probably see many regular Tournament Officials who were still Tournament worthy this season left out. It stinks for those guys but it is a strange season and difficult choices have to be made. That also means many Officials will be working back to back days. Since they are all in the same state it is certainly manageable and most Officials work many days in a row throughout the season. My guess is the first Round will be odd with many Officials working multiple games a round but by the time the Round of 32 rolls around it will be back to normal with 48 Officials working on the court.

Who were the other officials involved? I haven't seen anything that revealed that.

[sab2423]

Ayers, Valentine, Higgins, John Gaffney, Kipp Kissinger, Ray Natili

[howard63]

Mar 17, 2021 13:35:05 GMT -5 sab2423 said:

Ayers, Valentine, Higgins, John Gaffney, Kipp Kissinger, Ray Natili

Thanks for the info. All except Natili worked at least a few ACC games this year. Oronically, Natili was a longtime ACC ref before moving to Texas a few years ago.