Breeding Has A History

[around4ever 4,139]

Of questionable calls and miscommunication.  Stephens is from Virginia Beach, VA.  

This was written April 1, 2019.

https://www.si.com/college-basketball/2019/04/01/controversial-big-east-referees-work-final-four-games-ncaa-tournament

Two Big East referees who were involved in highly disputed decisions this season, James Breeding and Michael Stephens, were named to the 10-person crew that will work the Final Four this weekend. 

Breeding officiated a contentious and bizarre Big East tournament semifinal game in which Seton Hall came away with a 81–79 victory over Marquette, but not before nine technical fouls, 49 total fouls, 85 free throws, three ejections and four foul-outs were issued. Breeding worked that game with Jeff Clark and Tim Clougherty. At one point, Pirates star Myles Powell earned his second flagrant foul of the night and ended up in the locker room thinking he was ejected before he was brought back onto the court.

According to the Asbury Park Press, in an interview with an Associated Press reporter following the game—an unusual decision on its own—Breeding said the ejection was a miscommunication, due to the types of fouls. 

"Because he had had a flagrant personal foul in the first half, the Seton Hall bench thought that he was ejected for a second foul, not understanding that—I won't say they didn't understand, but it probably wasn't communicated clearly to them that his personal foul in the first half is a live ball flagrant personal foul which carries a different penalty than the technical foul, and those two together don't result in ejection," Breeding said. "Only two technical fouls, unsporting technical fouls, result in ejection.

"The Seton Hall bench thought that he had been ejected. When I saw that he went to the locker room, I went to them and said, 'He has one technical foul, one live ball flagrant personal foul, that does not result in ejection.' They went and got him back."

Breeding and Stephens worked a Seton Hall–St. John’s matchup that came down to a controversial finish after Stephens blew the whistle on what appeared to be a clean steal on a Seton Hall that would have sealed the game for St. John's. The officials ruled the play dead after review, giving Seton Hall the opportunity to win the game, 76–74. Following the game, Big East senior associate commissioner for sports media relations John Paquette said, “The officials decided it was a timing error, the clock did not start on the initial touch by the St. John’s defender on the throw in."

No. 1 Virginia will take on No. 5 Auburn on Saturday at 6:09 p.m. ET on CBS, followed by No. 3 Texas Tech against No. 2 Michigan State at 8:49 p.m. ET on CBS. The teams of officials for each game will be determined by J.D. Collins, the national coordinator of officiating and the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Committee.

[doverstutts 1,643]

according to kevin scarbinsky, two of those despots, breeding and one more, are contracted ACC officials and one lives in virginia beach

[AUTigersfan89 256]

47 minutes ago, doverstutts said:

according to kevin scarbinsky, two of those despots, breeding and one more, are contracted ACC officials and one lives in virginia beach

I saw that too which begs the question why they couldn't find officials with no ties to the SEC or ACC for the title game. I know officials work across conferences (I believe), but I know there are some West coast refs that don't have affiliations. **** that ref man. I hope he feels great seeing all these articles about his call. Hint hint, if people are talking about how you called the game and writing articles about it, you're not a good referee.

[ToraGirl 5,498]

What, if anything can be done, and by whom? Could complaints be filed by the AU athletic department? Found myself seeking solutions today that will prevent moments like this from hurting someone else. #precedent

[ShocksMyBrain 9,362]

5 minutes ago, ToraGirl said:

What, if anything can be done, and by whom? Could complaints be filed by the AU athletic department? Found myself seeking solutions today that will prevent moments like this from hurting someone else. #precedent

The blown call in the Saints/Rams game led to rule changes in the NFL(coaches can now challenge pass interference calls/no calls). Hopefully the same can be done in the NCAA. 

[AuburnEagle79 2,163]

9 minutes ago, ToraGirl said:

What, if anything can be done, and by whom? Could complaints be filed by the AU athletic department? Found myself seeking solutions today that will prevent moments like this from hurting someone else. #precedent

Our department will request an explanation. NCAA will say they missed the double dribble. That'll be it if I had to guess.

[ToraGirl 5,498]

4 minutes ago, AuburnEagle79 said:

Our department will request an explanation. NCAA will say they missed the double dribble. That'll be it if I had to guess.

At least that's something. We can't ever guarantee an outcome, but we can make sure we give them something passionate and convicting to think about. I can pray "hound them like white on rice prayers", too. 😎🤗

[gr82be 14,402]

Didn't know what I was going to be reading by the title of this thread. Noise needs to be made about this but not sure how they could discipline him? Based on these two instances I don't think he should referee in the tournament again. I'm sure there is extra pay or bonuses for these extra games. Give the opportunity to someone who pays attention to the game.  He should have to recertify as a referee at his expense or something of that nature. 

[CodeRocket 410]

1 hour ago, ToraGirl said:

What, if anything can be done, and by whom? Could complaints be filed by the AU athletic department? Found myself seeking solutions today that will prevent moments like this from hurting someone else. #precedent

When Virginia went up by (10) I was thinking, well they have the better team and disappointed or not, we just have to congratulate them. Then Auburn mounted a furious rally and took the lead. Having played a little basketball I know that anything can happen, and so I just held on and hoped. Then the unimaginable happened. It has been a long time but traveling, double-dribbling, over the back, and reaching in are some of the oldest violations in basketball. It is incomprehensible that the official on the baseline, James Breeding, could call a shooting foul on the final desperate three point attempt,  and miss the double dribble at mid-court maybe (900) milliseconds earlier. 

Here are comments from some coaches and the offending Virginia player:

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/26458859/the-foul-call-forever-overshadow-virginia-auburn-final-four

"A collection of prestigious coaches -- Jim Calhoun, Matt Painter, John Beilein, Tubby Smith and Bo Ryan among them -- added their two cents after the game, too.

"It was a foul because he jumped into him," one coach said.

Added another: "Yes, that's a foul."

But they all returned to what they believed was the real infraction: the missed double dribble call on Jerome as Brown tried to foul him with 1.5 seconds left.

Had the officials made that call prior to Doughty's foul, they agreed, Auburn would have regained possession and probably won. But Jerome said he thought the foul was the ref's priority.

"No, the ref didn't call a foul," he said after the game. "[Brown] was trying to foul me on purpose. I lost the ball. He let that one go, so I didn't think he was going to call anything else after that. I think the refs did a good job tonight. You're not always going to get a perfect whistle. But they definitely did a good job on both ends tonight. It was a more physical game, and refs aren't perfect just like players aren't perfect."

He is right, neither the officials nor the players are perfect, but when you make a call that decides the outcome of the game in the final few seconds of the game you put yourself in the impossible position of having to be perfect, and James Breeding was not perfect last night.

It is a long difficult road to get to the final four, and I don't know if Auburn will go back there in my lifetime even if we have better players. I believe that CBP is the man to get us back there if it happens.

Virginia may well win it all tomorrow night, but they will never deserve it.

[GTNupe11 2,033]

Jerome needs to hang that story up. "The ref was going to let anything go after that point" Yeah, as if he had picked the ball up and ran with it without dribbling the ref wasn't going to call travel. He has zero class to even fix his lips to say something so ridiculous.