Where Have You Gone Dick Bavetta

Yes, I know its preseason basketball and the players are still finding their groove but after the first set of games, the amount of fouls called by the replacement referees leavings me yearning for the professional referees to come back.

After the first 13 games, the replacement referees have called 747 fouls resulting in 931 free throws. If this trend continues, look for many of the early regular season games to go over the totals, which will force the odds makers to raise the totals on NBA games.

The replacement referees are calling an average of 57 fouls a game giving the teams a combined average of 71 free throws. If we compare that total to a random date last season –I’ve thrown a dart at the 2008/09 schedule and it landed on March 11 – on March 11 there were 11 games 460 fouls were called and 550 free throws were taken. Those numbers average out to 50 free throws on 41.8 fouls a game.

The difference

57 – 42 = 15 more fouls a game

71 – 50 = 21 more free throws

Those numbers are scary.

The replacement refs are calling fouls at a rate of 1.2 a minute or one every 50 seconds.  If they don’t ease up the impact on the flow of the game will be disastrous.

I wonder if the NBA will ease up on fining players and coaches for criticizing the referees, if not the NBA’s charitable foundation will be receiving 100’s of thousands of dollars more this season. If I were Mark Cuban, I would prepay for the upcoming season by presenting the league with a large novelty check for 2 million dollars.