In the 12 days leading up to the UA-BYU basketball game last week, referee Tony Padilla worked 11 games. That's ridiculous, isn't it?
In order, beginning on Jan. 13, Padilla officiated games at Houston, Cal, Cal-Fullerton, Kansas, Oklahoma State, San Francisco, Northern Colorado, Iowa State, ASU, UC-Riverside, Duke and then BYU.
He had one day off. One! How did he even know what day it was or what city he was in?
As if that wasn't enough, Padilla left Provo, Utah, after the Arizona-BYU game and flew to West Virginia to officiate the Kansas State-WVU game 24 hours later, followed on Wednesday by working the Cincinnati-Baylor game in Texas. On Thursday, he flew to Ames, Iowa, for the Colorado-Iowa State game.
Who can maintain their sanity working that schedule? Padilla is 63. How can his mind and body possibly hold up, flying coast to coast, back and forth, working 15 games in 17 days?
No wonder he blows a call every now and then.
NCAA official Tony Padilla in the second half during a game between Arizona and Northern Arizona, Nov. 6, 2019, in Tucson.
Padilla has become the referee that Arizona fans love to hate, although "love" seems like the wrong word. He clearly botched a call late last season in BYU's 96-95 overtime victory at McKale Center. Late in Monday's game at BYU, Padilla probably/likely/surely missed two calls in the last 45 seconds of a stressful finish. Fortunately, those botched calls didn't end Arizona's 20-game winning streak.
College basketball fans always have a "feared" referee, and Padilla is this generation's Booker Turner, Irv Brown and Richie Ballesteros, all of whom drew the ire of McKale fans the last 50 years.
Over the years, Lute Olson was influential enough to see that ref Tom Harrington was "banned" from working UA games. Sean Miller followed, getting referee Michael Irving banned from UA games until Miller was fired, a period of nine years.
The problem with college basketball officiating is that there are too few quality officials to work the massive load of games each week. Through Thursday, Padilla had called 67 games, the fifth-most in the business. According to the analytics of Kenpom.com, Padilla is ranked the No. 7 referee in college basketball. He called 106 games last season, one of only five officials who worked 100 games. His final game was the Auburn-Florida clash in the Final Four.
Officials are assigned to the NCAA Tournament on merit, judged by, among others, Tucsonan Chris Rastatter, head of the NCAA basketball referees organization.
Amazingly, Padilla has merited selection to the NCAA Tournament every season since 2008; he has called 49 NCAA Tournament games, including three Final Fours. UA fans don't want to hear this, but Padilla is judged as the No. 1 referee in the western part of the country, and has been for years. Or if not No. 1, he's No. 2 behind Kipp Kissinger.
Padilla has called 95 Arizona games since 2008. Ten of them were UA-ASU games. Nine were Arizona-UCLA games. How did we all get through it?
It's exhausting work, but officials are paid so well that being a full-time college basketball official is rewarding beyond most day-to-day jobs, which makes the exhausting travel schedules doable. Padilla and the elite-level officials are paid about $4,000 per game, or a bit more. True, they pay their travel expenses out of that bundle of money, but that's, what, $100,000? Padilla would still walk away with about $300,000 for a "part-time" job. He works the rest of the year as a bail bondsman in Sacramento.
Can you imagine the frequent flyer miles and hotel points the top officials accrue? Their summer vacations must be nice, a reward for listening to fans yell at them for four months.
Arizona fans should know this: You're going to see Padilla again at many Arizona games until his retirement. As far as I can research, the oldest elite-level referee who works Big 12 games is Randy McCall. He is 65. He called last week's UA-Cincinnati game at McKale Center and then rushed off to call games at Indiana State, Baylor and Tarleton State in mid-week.
Padilla is a former high school baseball all-star from Sacramento who graduated from Gonzaga. Before he became a high-profile basketball referee, he was one of the nation's top golfers. Really. He played on the Nike.com Tour (now the Korn Ferry Tour) and Canadian Tour. He was a regular opposite ex-UA golfers Ted Purdy and Rory Sabbatini, who were on their way to the PGA Tour. In 1998, Padilla missed qualifying for the U.S. Open by one stroke.
Until the NCAA comes up with a better way to schedule basketball officiating — to give these overworked referees a few more days off — men like Tony Padilla will gladly accept $4,000 per night to be in the middle of hotly contested BYU-Arizona games and live with the booing and criticism.
If you are a referee who is not on someone's "this guy is the worst" list, you haven't called enough games. Tony Padilla has worked almost 1,500 college basketball games. So, yes, he's blown a few calls along the way and will do so again.
