Are refs on the level?

When La Salle coach Aldin Ayo barged into the court to put a pair of assistant Siot Tanquingcen’s eyeglasses on referee Eric Viray for failing to call a foul on a clear case of contact during a recent UAAP senior men’s basketball game, he was ejected for a flagrant unsportsmanlike disqualifying offense.

No question, Ayo deserved to be thrown out. There was no justifying the confrontational and aggressive approach of expressing disgust over a non-call. While Ayo never cursed nor made physical contact on Viray, he got the boot because of his emotional outburst. Ayo later apologized to UAAP commissioner Rebo Saguisag, the league pool of referees, the Lasallian community and the fans for his behavior. La Salle appealed the one-game suspension that is the penalty for an ejection but was turned down by Saguisag.

But what happened to Viray and the two other referees who missed blowing the whistle on UE’s Wilson Bartolome piggybacking La Salle’s Thomas Torres to force a turnover at the sideline right in front of Ayo standing by the Archers bench? Were they sanctioned? Were they even told by Saguisag to examine their conscience? Bartolome obviously pushed Torres out of bounds. He, in fact, rode Torres’ back like a rider on a horse. How could that have been missed by Viray and the two other referees? Were the referees blind to the fact? If they were, what made them turn the other way?

Was it an honest mistake? As Torres was pushed out of bounds, he threw a back pass, hoping a teammate would catch it. The ball sailed out of bounds on the other side for a turnover. No foul was called.

There have been other incidents that make you wonder if the referees are on the level. In one game, La Salle’s Ben Mbala was clearly tripped but the referees called an ordinary foul. In another game, La Salle’s Kib Montalbo was slapped an unsportsmanlike foul for tripping but a replay showed no such thing as even the TV announcer remarked that the other player seemed to have stumbled on his own.

Because Mbala is such a dominating force, the referees seem to be tolerating a lot of physical contact on him. He’s been kneed in the gut, elbowed on the side, headlocked and taken down but the referees appear to be holding back on calling an unsportsmanlike foul. Are the referees deliberately trying to make the games close when Mbala is on the floor? For what reason?

Everyone knows there is heavy betting on games. Big money is placed on point spreads not as much on which team will win. Bettors who want to make sure they don’t lose their shirts could try to approach not only the players but also the referees to shave points to keep within the spread. So they’re not after one team beating the other, they just want to keep the scores within the point spread.

In the US, point-shaving has reared its ugly head in college and pro basketball. NBA referee Tim Donaghy was investigated for influencing the outcome of games because of his gambling connections. Boston College, the City College of New York and Arizona State were schools whose varsity teams were implicated for point-shaving.

Make no mistake about it. If there’s big money wagered on games, it’s not inconceivable for bettors to approach players and referees with enticing offers. In the PBA, commissioner Chito Narvasa keeps a tight rein on the league referees and his policy of eliminating discretion or diminishing the subjectivity of making calls sets a baseline for assessing the performance of the arbiters.   

Since PBA players earn big bucks and PBA referees are carefully policed, there is hardly any doubt of any kind of hanky-panky in the conduct of games. But in the college level where it is much easier to tempt players and referees, there must be firm supervision in the way a game is played or called.

It’s not enough for a referee to be consistent. You don’t want a referee to be consistently bad. The goal is for a referee to be consistently good. No one’s perfect and a referee is only human. But if the same referee keeps on missing calls or tolerating physical abuse or whistling phantom fouls, there must be some hidden agenda that has to be exposed.

If a referee can’t do a good job for whatever reason, then he has no business working a game. If he’s not cut out for the job, the commissioner must make the move to kick him out. The call for dismissal shouldn’t come from the fans or teams. It should come from the commissioner whose primary responsibility is to preserve the integrity of the game.

It’s difficult to accuse a referee or player of wrong-doing or selling out. He may be suspected but unless there is hard evidence, he can’t be chastised or even taken to court. But it’s the commissioner’s prerogative to evaluate a referee’s performance and decide his fate. The commissioner isn’t able to read what’s on a referee’s mind but he’s able to rate how he performs. Accusing a referee of monkey business is tricky and no commissioner will take that step unless there’s proof on the table. Still, if a referee makes bum calls or swallows his whistle on contact situations, he may not necessarily be on the take but he clearly doesn’t belong on the court.