Colunist Questions Referees’ Hours

The Boiling Point: A FoxSports Ohio columnist wrote an article about the three officials from Sunday’s game, who were refereeing their second game in 16 hours.


Many people love to hate on some of the more “popular” Big Ten referees, such as Jim Burr, Ed Hightower and Ted Valentine. The latter of the three was part of Sunday’s Purdue/Ohio State crew, who also did the Illinois/Michigan State game the night before.

FoxSports Ohio columnist Bruce Hooley has an issue with that.

"“Officials Mike Kitts, Ted Valentine and Mike Sanzere were working their second basketball game in 16 hours when they took the floor for the 1 p.m. ET tip-off from West Lafayette, Ind. At 9 p.m. the previous night, Kitts, Valentine and Sanzere began working the Illinois-Michigan State game in East Lansing, Mich., 250 miles away.”The Big Ten commented in the column, saying it wasn’t an issue at all.“My view of it is that’s who we wanted on the game,” Big Ten associate commissioner for basketball Rick Boyages said. “They got out of there about 15 minutes after the (Michigan State-Illinois) game. We stayed about halfway, in Fort Wayne. We got a decent night’s sleep and got up (Sunday) morning about 9:30. Any time we can get about 75 years’ experience on a game like that . . .”One final comment: I was at the postgame press conference, and Painter was asked by who I assume was this columnist about the referees’ schedules. He basically said he doesn’t like that officials have to work so much, but he’d rather have the three that did the Purdue game, however tired they were, than three lesser referees. There’s a reason the guys everyone knows have been around so long.Published on 02/22/2011 at 6:10 PM GMT+0000Last updated on 02/22/2011 at 6:10 PM GMT+0000 “Officials Mike Kitts, Ted Valentine and Mike Sanzere were working their second basketball game in 16 hours when they took the floor for the 1 p.m. ET tip-off from West Lafayette, Ind. At 9 p.m. the previous night, Kitts, Valentine and Sanzere began working the Illinois-Michigan State game in East Lansing, Mich., 250 miles away.”“My view of it is that’s who we wanted on the game,” Big Ten associate commissioner for basketball Rick Boyages said. “They got out of there about 15 minutes after the (Michigan State-Illinois) game. We stayed about halfway, in Fort Wayne. We got a decent night’s sleep and got up (Sunday) morning about 9:30. Any time we can get about 75 years’ experience on a game like that . . .”"