Interesting article in the WSJ about the change in officiating. It references a late call against Steph Curry for traveling, which lost them in the game that would’ve never happened before. They interviewed the NBA refs association and they said when guys were bigger and the ball moved toward the hoop, they missed a lot of traveling and switching pivot feet. Now that the game has moved to the perimeter, they are paying more attention. I wonder if that is happening in college?

College and high school referees are way more vigilant about calling traveling than NBA referees, by my observation.

Years ago when I went to see Gary Trent play in Cleveland his NBA rookie season I stayed at the downtown Marriott. After the game I went to the pool so my young son could take a swim and I jumped in the jacuzzi to relax. Pretty soon a guy comes over and get's in the other side and I thought he looked familiar. I asked if he was at the game that night. He said yes, and then I asked are you an NBA ref? He smiled and said yes. So I then just had to ask some questions - most at first about where he was from etc. And then I said I have to ask about this - "travelling" rules/calls in the NBA. He laughed out loud and then we chatted a bit about it. That was a fun experience....

Speaking with refs who have been in the highest levels of sports is really interesting. I used to work with a guy who was a MAC football ref. Most of the time he was either a back judge or linesmen. I asked him about pass interference calls. He said he could call it every time they threw down the field, but if he did the game would take 6 hours.

I wish they do that, and then maybe the players would stop interfering on each play and eventually we'd have consistency in calling PIs. IMHO, it's the most inconsistent call in college football. It's very maddening when replay shows a clear PI and it's not called, and later in that same game an almost identical PI is called. And, usually in the first case, the clueless announcers say "good no call . . . just let 'em play." And in the second case, "clearly interference . . . . good call."

The gray area of PI and holding is just an inherent weakness of the game. There is no solution. Same goes for basketball and blocking/charging and many of the hockey and soccer penalties. This is one of my main arguments when I speak the gospel of baseball to people...there may be bad calls but ball/strike, out/safe, fair/foul is black and white.

Good memory, I had a client who was coaching for Dallas when Gary was there and I was able to see him after the game in the locker room at a game in Dallas.

Regarding the traveling calls, it makes sense as the game has changed dramatically.