Eddie Hightower

[tjgopher]

I might add to this, that Hightower was the lead official in the Gopher game at Purdue where he and the other two guys officiating the contest allowed Purdue's Ryne Smith to bump, nudge, bash, blitz, destroy, ravage, tackle, knee, scrape, grasp, clutch, elbow, scratch, trip, hold, harrass, badger, slam, molest, head butt, assail, jab, poke, push, prod, shove, punch, tap, pillage, assault, violate, and kill Blake Hoffarber all day on every single play. It made a mockery of the game of basketball.

Yet, a month later, the SAME OFFICIAL somehow decides that a slight reach where I'm not sure there was even contact was worthy of whistling a foul on the same guy who was getting savaged at Purdue. And, the call comes with :30 left in a tie ballgame, as the MSU player was executing a turnover. Why is it at that time he chooses to FINALLY make a reach-in call?

Absolutely embarrassing.

 

[Rosemountian]

Hightower tends to call bigger games....so it makes sense that Tubby would have a worse record against better teams. i would like to see the breakdown who the gophers played and where in Hightower called games.

He is a "good" ref allegedly. Now I have never thought he was a good ref, but I definitely not a conspiracy theorist. I will say that I think generally officiating is piss poor in college basketball especially in the Big Ten. I do think it is especially bad in the Big Ten because the refs are not used to seeing such physical play, they simply are not experienced or quick enough to keep up with the game. It used to be that you could blame it on "Big Ten Refs" but there is really no such thing anymore. Refs call games all around the country. And yet people seem to get away with a lot more contact in the Big Ten regardless of the refs.
If this wasn't the case, every year when playing against non big ten tourney teams in the tourney...big ten squads would get in big time foul trouble. But they don't. Big Ten teams are very physical, and the refs won't call everything so they tend to get away with more.

I will never be able to figure out why everyone (on TV) thinks Hightower is a good official though. In my mind, if you know a ref's name...that is a definite bad thing. The guy calls the big games and he knows it. He is the slowest player in college basketball with the ability to take over a game. He loves being on TV.



All that being said, definitely not a conspiracy. He isn't good, but it isn't just us that he is a bad official for. He is an equal opportunity bad ref.

 

[tjgopher]

i would like to see the breakdown who the gophers played and where in Hightower called games.

18 Big Ten Game breakdown with Hightower in Tubby Smith era:

0-4 vs. Purdue (.000 %)
0-2 vs. Michigan (.000 %)
0-2 vs. Michigan State (.000 %)
0-2 vs. Ohio State (.000 %)
1-2 vs. Illinois (.333 %)
3-1 vs. Northwestern (.750 %)
1-0 vs. Wisconsin (1.000%)
5-13 TOTAL (.278 %)

For comparative purposes -- Big Ten Games against same opponents without Hightower:

2-1 vs. Purdue (.667 %)
3-2 vs. Michigan (.600 %)
1-6 vs. Michigan State (.142%)
3-4 vs. Ohio State (.429%)
1-3 vs. Illinois (.250 %)
4-1 vs. Northwestern (.800 %)
2-3 vs. Wisconsin (.400 %)
16-20 TOTAL (.445 %)

 

[tikited]

Once again...all ref's are terrible, not just Ed. Plus, we rarely get home cooking.

Blake fouled the guy on purpose because he panicked. Stupid foul and a stupid ending to a stupid game.

 

[CP Gopher]

And those damn referees cost the Vikings the Super Bowl and screwed the Wild and the Timberwolves and Lynx and Swarm and Kicks and Twins.
C'mon people. Really?

 

[Golden Shower]

First off, I'm stunned no one has talked about the absolute BS foul call on Blake with :27 left. No way can you make that call there in a tie game when the MSU guy is literally throwing the ball to a Gopher. If you watch the play (and you can do so here at the 2:20 mark), Blake really doesn't do much, Appling fires the ball right to Chip. Whistle! Foul! MSU up 2 after the 91% FT shooter swishes both.

I'm not a conspiracy theory guy. But, according to my calculations with help from here, here are some interesting numbers to chew on.

Eddie Hightower has officiated 18 Big Ten Conference games that Tubby Smith has coached in. Tubby's record in those 18 Big Ten games:

5-13 (.278 %)

Eddie Hightower has officiated 8 Big Ten Conference games in the last two years that Tubby Smith has coached in. Tubby's record in those 8 Big Ten games:

1-7 (.125 %)

Tubby Smith's record in all other Big Ten Conference games (those not officiated by Eddie Hightower):

27-23 (.540 %)

No where do I see in tjgopher's post saying anything about the call costing us the game. I think he brings up a very valid point. Ed Hightower is one of the worst refs to have ever officiated a basketball game. It is hard to not think he plays favorites (or makes calls against teams he doesn't like) by some of the HORRIBLE calls he makes!

The biggest problem is that complaining does not help. In fact it only serves to hurt Tubby is he calls Hightower what he is, A HORRIBLE official. Every sport circles the wagons when it comoes to criticizing officials. If they didn't, it would appear they hire incompetent buffoons, and only possibly shows how incompetent they are for allowing them to keep their jobs. So they sweep it under the rug and keep it all "behind closed doors".

I am with you on his tfgopher!!

 

[underground629]

I'm glad you were able to tell us what "really" happened and that Hightower isn't the only bad ref. You're right, he's jsut the worst one.

Once again...all ref's are terrible, not just Ed. Plus, we rarely get home cooking.

Blake fouled the guy on purpose because he panicked. Stupid foul and a stupid ending to a stupid game.

 

[indygopher]

I don't want to make another thread about officiating in a game the Gophers clearly choked away, but what about the Austin Hollins attempted dunk? I never got a second look at the play on tv, but I thought he got fouled and was shocked that such a strong move was not rewarded with a trip to the line. At the time the Gophers were up 7, and Hollins would have had a chance to put them up 9. I didn't Dvr this game, so I can't go back and look. FWIW, I did think Blake committed a reach in on the play being discussed here, but I'll take another look at it on your link.

I DID TiVo the game and rewound the dunk attempt. At the time I was just trying to see how Austin missed the dunk, and similar to an earlier game, the MSU player had his hand in the net. Should have been goaltending.

 

[tikited]

I'm glad you were able to tell us what "really" happened and that Hightower isn't the only bad ref. You're right, he's jsut the worst one.

It wasn't hard to tell you what "really" happened because I saw it. You didn't see it?

Ed is the worst, no argument there.

 

[ski-u-mah]

I agree with both points here. Generally I don't blame refs for a loss. They are going to screw up a bunch of calls, you just need to be good enough to overcome them.

Problem is, we aren't good enough to overcome them this year and they are killing us. Calls that may not seem huge and really sway momentum in close games. One example, how can refs totally blow two obvious basket interference calls? Again, not huge deals, but really swayed the tone of those games.