Humblebola

By: Atty. Toby Pavon

A lot has been said about the officiating in the first round of UAAP Season 88. The referees have been under a lot of scrutiny, from the coaches, the fans and even from the armchair analysts like ourselves. But it turns out, nobody scrutinizes these referees more than the Commissioner’s office.

At the start of the season Commissioner Jai Reyes stated his intention to heavily align the officiating with FIBA standards to prepare student-athletes for the international stage. In accomplishing this goal, the UAAP Commissioner has employed several measures to not only maintain, but continue to improve on the standard of excellence he and his team of deputies have set for the referees. These include referee audits in every game, game-time microphones on referees and a database of call-accuracy data which they can use to make decisions.

A lot of fans, myself included, mistakenly believed that nobody was overseeing the calls of these games, and that once a wrong call was made, there would be no recourse but to accept fate. Apparently not. The Commissioner’s office is constantly watching. In fact, every wrong call, every missed call that fans think they see, is recorded, and more.

Take for example, the three plays highlighted in our previously published piece. The Commissioner’s office invited us to see the data on those plays.

On the Jared Bahay three-pointer, the Commissioner’s office had clear footage of Jared Bahay’s toe on the line when the shot was released. The referees correctly called that a long-2. I wrongly called them out on it.

On the goaltending violation called against Mike Phillips, the Commissioner’s office logged it as a wrong call, flagging it as a clean block. However, I wrongly stated that the referees reviewed the call on the spot. According to FIBA Rules, a goaltending call can only be reviewed if it was called in the last 2 minutes of the 4th quarter or overtime, so it would have been inappropriate for the referees to review the call.

On the Matt Erolon three-pointer, the Commissioner’s office logged it as a wrong call. It was supposed to be a three-pointer. I wrongly believed nobody noticed and that nobody was watching.

So what did we learn?

First, that the Commissioner’s office is always watching. They record and audit every call made during the games, logging missed calls, wrong calls and correct calls. As fans, all we notice are the calls we feel are wrong, what we don’t notice are all the right calls, and there are a lot of them, an overwhelming lot of them. Based on the UAAP’s call-accuracy data, the men’s division has a 92.3% call accuracy for the first round. According to the Commissioner’s office, they use this data to identify which of the referees in the pool are performing at acceptable accuracy levels consistently. Those that don’t meet the UAAP’s accuracy standards are left off the pool for the following games.

By implementing this, the UAAP has set up a system which uses actual data, not just whims and emotions, in determining whether a game was well officiated or poorly officiated. Using this data only the most consistently accurate referees are left in the pool. Referees who have officiated with poor accuracy have been suspended or even banned. The UAAP sees them and holds them to account.

Second, the UAAP is committed to enforcing FIBA standards as it is the pinnacle of non-professional basketball. This means strict implementation of every aspect of those standards, down to which calls may or may not be reviewed, the interpretations of violations, procedure and even bench decorum. Many take it for granted that the UAAP has already been adhering to FIBA regulations for many years and believe that what worked before should continue to work. But there’s a reason there’s so much emphasis on this change, because it is change. With a higher accuracy of calls, it’s possible that teams simply aren’t able to get away with violations that they used to in the past. 

Something as simple as bench decorum and protocol are being standardized, aspects of the game that most people don’t give much thought to. From the number of chairs on the bench, to where players can sit, how they are supposed to come in and out of the court, FIBA regulations means something new for them to learn, and in school is the best place to learn this. Even coaches may need to adjust to the strict implementation of protocols. Coaches who have been around the game longer than many of us have been alive, are probably already set in their own ways, making conforming with FIBA standards a possible pain point.

This might not be the first time the UAAP has implemented a referee report card, but it’s the first season the Commissioner’s office has released the call accuracy data it collected, a welcome development in terms of transparency toward the teams and the other stakeholders. is the first season the UAAP has tracked call accuracy for the referees. The Commissioner’s office reported to the teams that the calls have been 92.5% accurate for the first round. Unless someone does the work and audits the calls from previous seasons, we’re going to have to consider that maybe the problem isn’t that the referees are making too many bad calls now, but instead, people have gotten used to the referees not making the right calls before.

Finally, the UAAP is indeed keeping an eye on the situation. Whenever there’s a perceived wrong call, the Commissioner’s office is taking note of it, reviewing it and grading it, together with the hundreds of other calls that didn’t garner the same violent reactions from coaches and fans. But if the call cannot be reversed or corrected on the spot based on FIBA rules, then that’s just how it’s going to be. It will be marked a wrong call, the call accuracy will be affected, and based on the data, the UAAP will impose the necessary sanction. The consistently accurate referees are kept in the pool while those with poor accuracy are kept out. A high standard keeps getting higher.

Even the voice data captured from the microphones placed on referees is used to evaluate their performance. It gives the UAAP insight not only into the thought process of the referee who made the call, but also the people around them, the coaches and players who had something to say to the officials. They could probably verify if a coach was given a warning for trying to ask a question. That’s the level of data gathering the UAAP engages in, and the amount of scrutiny the referees undergo each game. So the idea that the UAAP is not doing anything to address complaints or is not holding their referees accountable is simply wrong.

As we previously stated, refereeing is a thankless job, one where doing it right earns no praise but a single mistake draws the ire of rabid fanbases. In the UAAP the task is even more difficult because the stakes are higher, the games are more intense and the crowd intensity is unmatched. This is why the Commissioner has emphasized keeping a close watch on the people working the games to ensure that officiating is accurate, but based on how they have formulated their policies, it looks like what they won’t do is undermine their referees by breaking protocol to overrule them in situations they are not allowed to. Even at 92.5% accuracy, teams and audiences will still be able to spot a missed or wrong call or two every game. The referees will not be able to get everything right all the time, but it is reassuring to know the UAAP has mechanisms to keep improving.

As fans of the game, we all want the players to decide the outcome of games. But this also means having the players decide the outcomes of games within the rules. The referees serve to ensure everyone plays by the rules, sometimes this rigidity can feel frustrating, especially to those who are not used to that level of scrutiny. For the longest time, the fans have been clamoring for FIBA caliber officiating. The UAAP has done everything it can to give us a system that gives us the FIBA experience, perhaps we need to let more time pass to see if the UAAP is successful in achieving this goal, or if we as fans really wanted this shift to international caliber in the first place.

Moving forward, players on the court will continue to complain. Coaches on the court will continue to complain. Fans in the stands, in front of their monitors and phones will continue to complain. While all of that is happening, the Commissioner’s office is watching, holding the referees to account, employing a method that keeps consistently accurate refereeing in the UAAP pool– moving forward.