Refereeing in the UAAP and sports traditions

The reversal by the UAAP of the decision of its own Commissioner, Ato Badolato, to reject the protest of the National University (NU) that Far Eastern University’s (FEU) RR Garcia’s winning basket was made after regulation time and should therefore not be counted was, to say the least, odd. At worst, it was a total rejection of the proper role of Commissioner of a league like the UAAP. It also rejected the principle that, in sports, games are won and lost in the playing field and not in board rooms and conferences.

The Commissioner of a league is supposed to be the glue that binds the league together. The Commissioner is, in theory, the only person in the league that has no interest to promote, protect and defend except that of the league. The Commissioner is to be above all the competing interests of all league members who do their best to win. Badolato was given the Commissioner’s job precisely because he has the expertise and can be counted upon to use his best and independent judgment so that the Board does not micro manage the league.

Judgment is what the Commissioner is paid and hired for. To reverse him and to order a re-play is to say that the UAAP Board is substituting its judgment for the Commissioner’s. If that is the case, then what we have is an executive board and not a policy-making body.

The main reason for the replay was “because the pieces of evidence/statements/video used in the deliberation (by the Board) were inconclusive and unclear”. That Board statement is very revealing and is precisely the reason why you appoint a Commissioner who will use his judgment because evidence is “inconclusive and unclear”. In short, the Commissioner has been entrusted with the task of using his independent judgment to sort out all that ambiguity.

Ordering replays however is not new in the UAAP. It ordered a replay in 1991 when Tony Boy Espinosa of De La Salle University (DLSU) was allowed to play for a few seconds in a championship match by desk officials oblivious to the fact that Espinosa had incurred five fouls. DLSU won that game and did not show up for the rematch. In 2005, DLSU again figured in a similar protest. The University of the East (UE) protested Cholo Villanueva’s buzzer-beater which sent the game into overtime. The UAAP Board again ordered a replay and this time the Green Archers showed up for the rematch to win it.

Certainly, there are many odd things happening in the UAAP. Last Sunday, three referees, Messrs. Arguelles, Buaron and Olivar showed how a game ought not be refereed. In a pivotal encounter leading to the Final Four, the three awarded a total of 30 free throws to NU while DLSU had only seven opportunities at the foul line. DLSU’s defense must have been so rugged, lacking in skill and sophistication while NU’s was so superbly polished to create such a blatantly lop-sided situation.

Badolato should have these three so-called referees (who wore uniforms numbered one, six and 28) investigated and probably banned from future UAAP games lest UAAP Board members again reverse all their calls and order a replay which is the UAAP’s favorite formula. These guys are an embarrassment to basketball and the noble and sensitive job of refereeing.

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Shifting to a topic we started discussing two weeks ago, we refer once again to Zaki Laidi’s World View column entitled “Olympolitik”, which appeared in a broadsheet on Aug. 19, 2012. Laidi stated that the four factors behind Olympic success are population size, sports traditions, sports policy and level of development.

We discussed population size and how sports traditions and sports policy are intimately related, each being cause and/or effect to the other. Laidi used Ethiopia and Kenya to point out that the natural and physical make up of Ethiopia played a critical role in the development of the country’s outstanding tradition of excellence in track and field: in the middle and long distance events like the 5,000- and 10,000-meters and the 42-kilometer marathon.

We also laid the groundwork in last week’s column for how sports policy can cushion the impact of “lack of funds” (and conversely, magnify and exponentially increase the damage created by lack of funds when there is no sports policy) and the undeniable fact that even the abundance of funds is not always a guarantee for Olympic success (and for anything substantive and worthwhile).

Traditions like excellence in amateur boxing created by Nicanor Reyes Jr, whose father, Nicanor Sr, was co-founder of FEU, through his (Nicanor Jr) establishment of the Tamaraw’s boxing squad, are created over time. Their continued existence requires dedication and an unrelenting attitude to carry on because these traditions are integral to one’s core values.

More on FEU’s boxing team and other Philippine sports traditions next week.