College Hoop Refs Suspended Over Blown Calls
2008 was full of controversies involving game officials - whether it was Ed Hochuli’s infamous mishandling of Jay Cutler’s fumble in the first Broncos vs. Chargers game, or SEC official Wilbur Hackett, Jr. taking out South Carolina’s QB. Unfortunately, it looks like a trio of West Coast Conference basketball referees are already blowing their New Year’s Resolution of “we will not blow any calls that cost teams games.”
The EL PASO TIMES reports that the WCC has suspended a men’s basketball crew for the opening game of conference play after making a series of errors in Santa Clara’s 89-88 OT victory over UTEP in the championship game of the Cable Car Classic. (Do they really have cable cars in Santa Clara - I thought that was in San Francisco?) Technically, Thomas Wood, Bruce Hicks and Alan Pierce were suspended for allowing an illegal substitution, but according to UTEP AD Bob Stull, there were a number of problems:
