Tournament Officiating Different then Regular season Officiating

Although most everyone involved will probably not admit it on the officials side of things, yes it is different for the following reasons.

1. 3 officials not 2

2. Officials being constantly evaluted by site supervisors for each game they work

How do I know this? Well, having had teams in the tournament for 26 years our scorebooks usually showed that there were more personal fouls called in tournament games then in the regular season games even with 2 officials,  because of the above 2 reasons and the reasons below..

Add into it that some or even many or maybe even all officials are worried about their next possible tournament assignment may be based on the game they are working…this doesn;t happen in the regular season so just this added pressure alone means that some officials would rather call more then less in order to get a good evaluation, thus the game is called tigher with more whistles.

 Much bigger crowds

More pressure on one and done tournament games where the losers go home.

Teams should prepare for this by hiring 3 officials for their last 3 home games to get ready for 6 eyes instead of 4 eyes. More is called off the ball with 3 then with 2 because the areas onnthe court are in thirds not halves..