The NCAA imposes rule changes and new officiating points of emphasis every other college basketball season, and this isn’t one of them.
But as the Arizona Wildcats have already found out this fall, some points of emphasis never really leave an official’s mind.
Both in their final exhibition game and in their season opener Monday, the Wildcats had a player assessed a Class A technical foul for what appeared to be mostly non-verbal forms of intimidation.
That is, staring at a guy. That’s all it can take. Words not required.
“Sportsmanship has always been an emphasis and will continue to be an emphasis,” Tucson-based NCAA officials coordinator Chris Rastatter said Thursday on a Zoom call with U.S. Basketball Writers Association members. “There’s no room in college basketball for unsporting contact. So a stare down absolutely is a technical foul. It will escalate — you stare down, now a kid reacts. I think we’re pretty good at (stopping) that.”
Both times it happened to his players recently, Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd agreed with that reasoning.
In an Oct. 28 exhibition game, wing Anthony Dell’Orso was called for a Class A technical when he appeared to stare at Point Loma’s Zach Paulsen after fouling him beyond the 3-point line.
“You just can’t stand over somebody,” Lloyd said. “The official told me, ‘Hey, I don’t know what he said, but somebody stands over somebody, and it’s threatening. And then the guy on the floor (maybe) retaliates.’
“So I thought the ref did a great job of handling it. We’ve got to learn we can take a deep breath in those situations and not hurt ourselves.”
It didn’t hurt the Wildcats that time. Even though the sequence sent Paulsen to the line for five free throws and he made four of them, the Wildcats still won 113-64. But Lloyd warned that such a technical could make a difference in a tighter game.
A week later, the Wildcats received another warning in their 93-64 regular-season opener against Canisius on Monday.
With just over five minutes left, Canisius’ Jasman Sangha appeared to yank UA forward Henri Veesaar on a drive to the basket. Officials reviewed the sequence, then ejected Sangha for a Flagrant 2 foul while also handing Veesaar a Class A technical for his reaction to Sangha.
Arizona Wildcats forward Tobe Awaka holds back forward Henri Veesaar after he was fouled in the second half of the game against Canisius at McKale Center, Nov. 4, 2024.
The only concern Lloyd expressed afterward was the timing. While saying official Mike Greenstein was “one of the best,” Lloyd said he asked Greenstein if an immediate call on Sangha’s violation at least might have avoided the face-to-face conflict in the first place.
“That’s where I would think that it could maybe help, if the ref could just be a little bit more assertive,” Lloyd said. “But, listen, I’m not going to question Mike’s judgment.”
Both Lloyd and Rastatter indicated it can be a fine line. Officials are mandated to control the temperature on the floor, but not with too heavy of a hand.
“I think we’re pretty good at addressing unsporting behavior and we don’t go overboard,” Rastatter said. “I don’t think we need to go overboard. We’re not looking for it, but when it happens, you’ve got to get it, absolutely.”
Meanwhile, Rastatter said he continued before this season to hammer in one rule change the NCAA made last season: Requiring a defender to establish a legal guarding position before an airborne player plants his final (plant) foot on the floor, a rule change that makes it tougher for defenders to avoid a blocking foul.
“In years past, you were able to slide in until that offensive player left the ground,” Rastatter said, but added that the rule is different for those defending a ballhandler who does not take flight.
“If I’m dribbling down the floor and I’m getting towards the top of the key, as long as I’m not airborne and just dribbling, that defender — primary or secondary — can jump in front, short of contact, and take a charge,” Rastatter said. “So it all depends on the situation.”
“Sportsmanship has always been an emphasis and will continue to be an emphasis,” Tucson-based NCAA officials coordinator Chris Rastatter said.
A Rincon High School and UA graduate who worked games in the Pac-12 and other major conferences, Rastattter addressed several other topics Thursday. Among them:
- Asked if officials are encouraged to have a “tighter whistle” earlier in the season than in March, Rastatter smiled and said it was a great question.
“I did a thing with some coaches over the summer and we talk about things like that,” Rastatter said. “Early in the season, everybody’s excited. You’ve got your new mandates, you’ve got the new rules. Now we’re going to go out there and we’re going to apply all that. So I get that but… I’m going to be wanting the same whistles on the same type of plays (all season).
“I think the games are a little different, to be fair, in January, February and March. There’s more on the line. You’re talking about playoff or tournament seed, conference tournament play. So the games generally tend to be more intense, higher energy, and that leads to different types of whistles.
“So I’m not going to tell you it doesn’t happen, but I can tell you the message will be the same.”
- There are nine women referees in the NCAA pool this season, including some who have worked the NCAA Tournament and Hall of Fame games that Rastatter assigns, and more are likely to be added.
“We’re trying to grow that, absolutely,” Rastatter said. “It’s a developmental process.”
- Gambling implications resulted in a rule requiring officials to review every buzzer shot, regardless of score.
“We talk to referees a lot about gambling and what’s going on to have that awareness,” Rastatter said. With buzzer shots, “there is no ‘Oh, just count it and let’s walk off the court,’ because that happened a few years ago in a game where we just scored it because it was a 12-point game.
“Well, it affected the line, and so that referee got some mail.”
