The Big 12 Conference has completed its review of a play that occurred during the Kansas University-Iowa State men’s basketball game Saturday at Allen Fieldhouse, the league announced Wednesday.
After review of the game videotape, interviews with the officials and a report from the on-site officials observer, it was determined that the game officials failed to give Iowa State’s Jared Homan a second free-throw attempt at the appropriate time.
While admitting a mistake had been made, the league will change nothing about the outcome of the game, KU’s 90-89 overtime victory.
Homan had been fouled while shooting in the first half and attempted the first free throw. Kansas rebounded his miss and J.R. Giddens proceeded to make a three-point field goal.
The officials then corrected the error and allowed Homan to shoot his second free throw and awarded Iowa State the ball.
NCAA officiating rules state failing to award a merited free throw is a correctable error (Rule 2, Section 10). The rule provides for the merited free throw to be administered on the next dead-ball situation. It does not permit the cancellation of a made basket that occurred prior to the next dead ball.
In this situation, the officials did correct the error after Kansas had scored, Big 12 coordinator of officials Dale Kelley said. Therefore, Giddens’ three points were not taken off the scoreboard.
“We were very disappointed in the poor communication between the officials on this play,” Big 12 commissioner Kevin Weiberg said. “The officials did subsequently administer the correctable-error rule in the proper manner, but this situation should not have occurred. We have taken action regarding the officials consistent with our conference officiating policies.”
The officials at the game were Tom O’Neill, Danny Hooker and Paul Janssen.
Earlier Wednesday, Kelley answered some Journal-World questions about Big 12 officials. Kelley said the Big 12 pays each official $725 per game, plus $160 per diem as well as round-trip coach airfare less 25 percent from where he lives.
“Two or three conferences pay more,” Kelley said. “Many pay less.”
Most of the league’s referees have other jobs, but Kelley said some owned their own businesses while others have taken early retirement and worked games as their primary source of employment.
An example of the latter would be Ted Hillary, a retired school teacher from Grand Rapids, Mich., who works both in Big Ten Conference games as well as in the Big 12. Hillary was one of the three officials at Monday’s Kansas-Texas game in Austin, Texas. Tuesday, Hillary worked the Missouri-Oklahoma State game in Columbia, Mo.
Because he is recognized as one of the top officials in the country, Hillary works as often as he wants.
“There is no limit on how many games an official can work per week,” Kelley said. “They’re independent contractors and most try to work as many (games) as they can.”
Kelley said league coaches regularly send him tapes to review and that he always sends back a response as soon as possible.
What happens when officials make mistakes? First, the officials are informed of the concerns.
“If they are young or new to the league and continue to make mistakes, they likely won’t be employed by the league long,” Kelley said. “If it’s a veteran official who has a bad day, that is a different matter.”
Kelley noted that any official could have a bad day, but added: “We judge the criteria of calls.”
Too many poor performances can prevent an official from being recommended by Kelley for postseason work. Every year, the Big 12 supervisor submits a list of his top-rated officials to the NCAA basketball committee.
“Every conference in the country does it,” Kelley said. “They take the best 96 officials to work the first and second rounds.”