Saturday, May 01, 2010

How Would You Rule? (Big 12 Questions)

We had a great time officiating the Big 12 tournament this week and it was great fun sitting around with officials from all over the country and discussing various scenarios and opinions. Here are two that we really liked:

SCENARIO ONE

In a women's ITA match, player A serves a let second serve. Player B calls the ball and out and is overruled by the chair official.

What should the official do:

1. Award the point to player A for the overrule on Player B.
2. Give player A a first serve let.
3. Give player A a second serve let.

Hint: the officials in Austin were even divided on the issue.

SCENARIO TWO

How many medical timeouts does a player get in a dual match?

(Be sure to think this one through carefully.)

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

ONE: give the player A a second serve let.

TWO: one MTO during warm-up and one MTO during the match. Bleeding timeout is separate.

Or call Cheryl and have her decide.

AR Hacked Off said...

Scenario 1: Second Serve to the Server and 1 overrule against the returner.

Scenario 2: 1 Medical during Warm-up and 1 for same condition during the match or just 1 MTO if nothing taken in Warm-ups.

Big 12 coaches should know this since it is the elite schools who pass this asinine rules.

Anonymous said...

Just heard that Sara Lammerts (A&M coordinator) was the REFEREE for the Baylor-A&M match today.

Please tell me that Vickie Wright (UT coordinator) will be the referee for the UT-A&M match tomorrow.

Fair is fair but where does that leave Baylor?

Anonymous said...

I don't think either of the two coordinators mentioned would be biased in favor of the university where they work. They have done this work for way too long. (OK Eeyore, time for your rebuttal!)

HOWEVER, my big complaint is why the conference coordinator would even put these two officials in this position and even allow the remote possibility that someone would suggest favoritism. What a huge example of poor judgment.

Why is this favoritism and poor judgment tolerated year after year?
Two reasons:

Intimidation
Fear

How sad . . . . . .

RM said...

I know all of the Big 12 officials and doubt seriously if any of them would be ever be biased either for or against any school.

However, to see the A&M coordinator, a former A&M varsity tennis player, and the Mother of a former A&M player chairing the matches in an A&M vs Baylor dual just ain't right...

That's my opinion though.

Anonymous said...

why would the 3 most connected to TAMU officials in the country be assigned to the TAMU v Baylor match?
To rub it in the face of a coach not in their favor? To place these
(qualified and high integrity officials)in a comprimising position?Because the coordinator is unprofessional and arrogant?Because the UT coordinators were busy working the UT vs TT match @ the same time and place?
I choose "all of the above"
cast your vote now!

Anonymous said...

Perhaps it would have been better to put the A&M coordinator as referee on the Texas match and the Texas coordinator as referee on the A&M match.

Anonymous said...

I vote for the earlier suggestions of intimidation and fear.

How much longer are the officials, coaches, and players of the Big 12 going to be subjected to the favoritism, unprofessionalism and arrogance of the coordinator of officials?

The overall quality of the officials in the conference is very good -- in spite of the coordinator. Imagine how much better it could be!

Anonymous said...

It seems there is serious bias against the coordinators by commenters here.

Do you have any evidence there is bias by the coordinators when being referee of these matches?

Or is the referee of the tournament a status job everyone wants?

Anonymous said...

I have always asked this about the conflict of interest. I understand that these officials, who I know are above reproach, are great officials. But to put that aura out there when there really is no need is a bit flaky.

Also let's not the ex-Baylor head coach sitting in the chair in a Baylor match...

why? why? why?

Come on, there are enough officials there to handle these situations.

On the other side of the equation, I saw the benefits today. The first official out there to quiet the TAMU crowd was a former Aggie himself. That is where those guys are needed for sure.

Anonymous said...

what about the medical timeout for Broosova, trailing 4-0 in the third set tiebreak today? There seemed to bee some confusion on whether that should've been granted or not.

I assume you can call for one at any point.

RM said...

I assume that the aglet who quieted the crowd was the Myronian... Noone ever questions his impartiality or abilities. He just should not have been put in that position in the first place.

Anonymous said...

A player may ask for an MTO at any point in the match and the umpire must allow it. The only time to say "No" is if they have already had an MTO during the match.

Why would there have been any confusion? Can somebody please fill in the missing information?

Anonymous said...

Actually Coach Center was the one who hushed the crowd, especially his obnoxious freshmen recruits. His quote was "shut up and let them play tennis" unquote.

There were quite a few spectators embarrassed on how the Texas fans (i.e., players) were behaving themselves.

Is that the reason the police helicopter was flying overhead? One official from Oklahoma commented they were doing a jail run for the Texas football players.