New Emphasis on Officials Calling Traveling

[tx4OU]

I would like to talk about the "emphasis" the officials have decided to focus upon this year. The Traveling call. Frankly, I'm starting to get a little tired of all of these "emphasises" every year. It seems, upon each season's approach, there's one particular thing that gets pulled out of the hat when "said emphasis" has always been a violation or foul to begin with. It's not like it's some new rule everyone needs to learn and be aware of.

Anyway, after reading all of the game threads and watching the OU @ ISU game last night, it seems the "emphasis" is alive and well across the B12 landscape. At least they are making an emphasis on calling the violation that's being "emphasized" for this year. (Are you getting the emphasis of my frustration?)

I would like to know just how many times officials blew their whistles and called traveling in your team's respected games. Try to break it down for both your team and your opponent, then total combined calls. From reading various poster's comments, I'm sure it would make for some interesting comparisons. (YCN where are you? You're always good with things like this.)

I've watched almost every WCB game televised so far this year(I have all of the sports packages) and IMO, I don't see the Traveling call being made in other conferences as much as I've seen it with just the games that were played last night. Are our officials really emphasizing the "emphasis?" Are all of the calls legitimate in your opinion?

I don't know. I just thought it would be interesting to look at, esp. when I've been reading the same frustration as I've been feeling:

buff190
Recruit
On the down side...
The traveling calls were frustrating. I don't understand, Aija has always struggled with that but I don't remember Jackie having such a problem with it.

LadyBuff
First Team All Big 12
Jackie has had problems with traveling calls all season for some reason.
BeBe
Big 12 Player of the Year
Regarding the travelling calls ... I remember one of the TV annoucers at an early (non-CU) game saying that it was a pooint of emphasis this season for the refs.

Jasmina Ilic always had problems with travels as well. I know they said at the time traveling was called differently in international WBB versus in NCAA WBB. I thought then that it was probably difficult for her to adjust from the way she had always done it to fit with NCAA rules. In practice, she could be getting it right because she was thinking about it. But in a game, in the heat of play, the years of doing it one way seemed to take over and she ended up doing what she had always done in Europe.

Perhaps some of that same thing is happening to Jackie this season. With the emphasis on travels, they may be calling it a bit tighter than they used to. Perhaps Jackie had previously been close to the edge but just on the legal side with her moves and now those same moves have her just on the not-legal side. Changing something that has been a years-long habit can be extremely tough.

I'm sure it frustrates her as much or more than it frustrates us. You can see it in her face when a travel is called.

[spooky]

Actually, I was thinking the other day that it seemed there had been fewer traveling calls than usual this year, especially the ones they always seem to call when a player receives a pass and gets whistled for taking a quick step before they make their first dribble.

Those calls have always bugged me, because it's a fairly consistent practice, one I've seen from many different players on many different teams at about the same rate. Yet some games it's whistled nonstop, and other games not at all. For some reason, it seems to me that technical violations like these out to be easier to enforce consistently than contact fouls.

I know I've talked a bit about this with a Big 12 ref in the past, and he said that he rarely calls traveling at all, except when it's really blatant, because he's not usually paying enough attention to the feet to be sure he's correct. It's kind of a bit of refreshing honesty, but it creates problems when he won't make those calls but his partner officials will.

I'm with you on being tired of the "points of emphasis" as well. Just enforce the rules all the same, as well and consistently as you can, and try to avoid the "favorite violation of the night" syndrome.

[Jimi]

Are all of the calls legitimate in your opinion?
I'd say about half the calls in the TAMU KSU game were correct. Those called against A&M were legit. :D

Seriously, I think they have been called mostly right in the games I have seen.

[tycat947]

I would like to talk about the "emphasis" the officials have decided to focus upon this year. The Traveling call. Frankly, I'm starting to get a little tired of all of these "emphasises" every year. It seems, upon each season's approach, there's one particular thing that gets pulled out of the hat when "said emphasis" has always been a violation or foul to begin with. It's not like it's some new rule everyone needs to learn and be aware of.


TX4OU, I agree about the "emphasis" calls! If they're having to emphasize a certain area to watch, then conference officials must be reviewing tapes of the games and determining that the officials are doing a poor job on certain areas. I just wish they would have officials "emphasize calling the games correctly and justly"! I think that would just about take care of everything!
:)

[Noah121]

TWEET!

I didn't count, but the refs were calling a lot of travels at recent Nebraska games that looked more like fouls. I'll have to keep closer track next time...

[Guns Up!]

I just wish they would have officials "emphasize calling the games correctly and justly"! I think that would just about take care of everything!
:)

My thoughts exactly tycat! I also agree that if they are having to "emphasise" something, then it must not have been done correctly in the past.

[YCN]

Unfortunately, in PBP stats for games turnovers aren't always broken down by type. such as traveling or a bad pass out of bounds. And many box scores aren't accompanied by PBP stats.

You know if it's a turnover due to an offensive foul or a steal, or even a blocked shot resulting in a steal. But we don't know if it's a steal off a bad pass or someone getting picked. If you know it's a turnover, but no other information shows up, it could be a bad pass out of bounds, traveling, stepping out of bounds, or who knows what else.

[Gator]

I would like to talk about the "emphasis" the officials have decided to focus upon this year. The Traveling call. Frankly, I'm starting to get a little tired of all of these "emphasises" every year. It seems, upon each season's approach, there's one particular thing that gets pulled out of the hat when "said emphasis" has always been a violation or foul to begin with. It's not like it's some new rule everyone needs to learn and be aware of.

It just looks like a good managerial/quality control practice to me. You find something which is important and not being done to your satisfaction and you want to fix it. Just telling everybody to pay more attention to everything is not very effective.

----Very visible sucessful coaches really pushing the envelope on bench decorum? More coaches see it think that is a cool way to coach? Officials ignoring the "foul" for lots of reasons, including perhaps not wanting to get sideways of some cooaches? :rolleyes: Waiting for a player to run one of the offending coaches down?:p Whatever ....

----Coaches telling conference that a certain type of foul is being called less than it should be and it is affecting the game by .....