First weekend of March Madness was awesome–except for one huge problem!

Just a few days ago, 68 teams were celebrating being named part of the March Madness college basketball tournament. Oh, what a glorious time it was for hoops fans everywhere.

But as is true every year, the celebration for most was quite short-lived.

Of those 68 initial teams, only 16 remain as we head into the second weekend of play.  Sadly, 52 teams all harboring great hopes and dreams just a few short days ago have been eliminated in the basketball bloodshed that is the first weekend of the tournament.

The games were great! The level of play was outstanding, and even though we saw only one buzzer-beater (thank you, Derek Queen of Maryland) there was plenty of drama, intrigue and exciting finishes.

Yes, all was wonderful in the basketball world–except one big problem: too many whistles from the officials! Way too many!

I can safely say, and in fact do so with extreme confidence, that the viewing enjoyment of this four-day basketball extravaganza last week was severely interrupted by the constant stoppage of play.

Bottom line? Basketball is a game of flow. To enjoy the game, you need to see the movement, transition, and constant up-and-down- the-court action which features and highlights the incredible skill and athleticism of the players. The game must proceed without an excessive number of stoppages.  

But over the four-plus days of tournament competition, very few of the games had this kind of euphoric flow. More often than not, what we experienced was a constant barrage of whistles, replays and referee discussions. Basketball buzz kill personified. It was brutal, with most of the calls made for minor infractions that easily could be called “play on” situations.

Note, I am not here arguing in the least about bad calls that cost teams games.  Not the point here of this little hoops diatribe. Instead it is the frequency of the whistles I allude to. 

Specifically? The biggest complaint, and most egregious error in judgement, I saw was on inside shot attempts right at the basket.  Almost every time (or so it seemed), somebody would drive or post up for an inside basket attempt and then, boom!  A foul called on the contact. 

You then watch the replay and more often than not the defender’s arms were pretty much straight up, clearly in the realm of incidental contact. Sometimes you even see the offensive player drive into the body of the defender causing the contact and still the officials would call that a foul on the defender.

Even players defending the ball were too often called for cheap fouls that could easily have been let go to continue the course of action, likewise for the three-point shooters who kick their legs out, or snap their head back to purposely try and draw a foul. 

All of the above and more definitely cut into the enjoyment of watching all the games. This was not true in just one or two of the games, but really, pretty consistently across the board for all games.

So as we head into Thursday and Friday’s “Sweet 16” games—which, by the way, feature some fantastic matchups— let’s huddle up the refs and have a little pow wow.

The number one discussion point to be addressed should be  “Silence is golden when it comes to using the whistle.” Let the games flow just a bit and call only the obvious fouls.

College hoops fans across the nation thank you in advance for your cooperation.