Investigation of Pac12 Ref John Higgins for point shaving

The short guy with the silver hair made the in-bounds call. He also awarded the Utah player a timeout on the subsequent in-bounds play, when there was a pretty obvious 5-second violation. He also was the guy who awarded the timeout on what should have been a jump ball.

WT was on Higgins for not calling charging several times in the second half. Higgins clearly was yelling back at WT that the OSU defenders were "flopping." Higgins was also making calls from clear across the court. He is known to have a massive, massive ego.

The officials also told WT it was OK for the Utah player (34) to grab the rim and pull it down because the ball was not in the cylinder.

Eubank's fifth foul was dumb on his part, but No. 3 and No. 4 were absolute ticky-tack. I thought Caldwell ( #2) clearly fouled Tres on the body on Tres' last-second 3-pointer.

WT was as irate as I've ever seen him on the bench. Overall, a terrible second half from what should have been a strong crew.

What killed me was the utah player shuffled his feet inbounding the ball with 1.4 seconds left, just after Ethan was called for it. He didnt move as muchnas Ethan did... but his feet were a walkin around. My issue is be consistent!

As preposterous as much of the officiating was in Sunday’s game, I’m not inclined to attribute it to point shaving. I don’t think those guys are willing to risk their on-court gig to assist the gaming industry, legal or illegal.

There’s another consideration to look at.


After the game, I was wondering “who are these guys?” and did a little online digging, and that’s when the story about John Higgins getting death threats and subsequently filing the lawsuit was found. Another of the stories mentioned referees are essentially independent contractors: they can work games in multiple conferences and to a great degree they set their own schedules. (I’m not clear on the ins and outs of how they interact with each conference to determine which games they will be working.) It said many officials will work as many games as possible because the more you work, the more you make.


So, how much are our friends Higgins, Steve Olson and Randy McCoy working? And where? A quick run through the Google machine showed all three had worked a game the previous day.


Or, in two cases, night.


Higgins and Olson officiated the Boise State at Nevada-Las Vegas game, which tipped off at 8 p.m. Saturday night. Figuring the game wrapped up about 10 p.m., they then had to shower, get to the airport, fly to Portland or Eugene, get some rest and get to Corvallis in advance of a 3 p.m. tipoff.


So there’s a pretty good chance you’re tired when the Sunday game starts, maybe you’re a little foggy, you miss a call or two early and people get on you. When I’m tired, I’m cranky; maybe they’re the same way and the early disagreements get them even more irritated toward the complainers.


Higgins gives off an “I’ll show you” air that, in reading about his other work, seems to be his default setting, so that quality is aggravated. He also worked Friday night’s game that had Kansas at Texas, and got into it with Texas coach Shaka Smart ( www.wearebbn.com/2017/12/30/jay-bilas-calls-john-higgins-inappropriate-behavior/ ;it’s a Kentucky site, but watch the clip ).


By the middle of the second half, Olson looked physically whipped – I thought he must have started his New Year’s Eve party a night early, but he’d been working a late game in another state.


By the end of Sunday’s game, my guess is neither of them wanted to contemplate working overtime.


McCoy, who I thought did the best job most of the game, worked a game Saturday as well, but his St. Mary’s at Brigham Young game tipped off at 2 p.m., giving him another six hours to travel and recover.


Incidentally, it was the third game in three days for all of them. In addition to Higgins being at Texas, Olson and McCall both worked the Washington at Southern California game. I didn’t have the time or inclination to go back further than that, but it would be interesting to know how many games they’ve worked and how many miles they’ve travelled in the past week or two weeks.


So it’s not a point shaving investigation I’d encourage, but rather a look at whether the way this system is set up is conducive to having referees who are physically and mentally at the top of their game for each contest.

And whether at least one guy needs some counseling on interpersonal relations.


Now, let’s go beat the crap out of the Ducks. This team still has a chance to be pretty good.

There were definitely some bad calls that hurt the Beavers, but point shaving is going to the extreme. Bad game by what appears to be at least one bad ref.

Rule... interpretation... who cares! Let's all agree it's a horses%#te call... is never made unless the inbounder blantantly runs to make a pass, and never called in that situation.

There were numerous egregious calls... some very bad... the refs sucked... OSU didn't hit some easy looks and had another crucial dry spell.

Unfortunately it's the type of game this team needs to win at home.

How about this. Larry K called for a make up call from 2 years ago when Stevie T Jr hits three free throws to win the game on a bogus call at the buzzer

Next make up call UW

The call that gave Stevie those 3 free throws was a make-up call from a similarly bogus foul call on Jarmal Reid on a 3 by a Utah player that gave them the lead in the first place if I remember correctly.