When the NCAA Tournament gets under way in earnest Thursday, most fans will be watching closely for their favorite teams, upsets by the latest Cinderellas, and buzzer-beaters.
What they probably won’t pay too much attention to — unless something goes wrong — are the referees. Ideally, the refs won’t become the focal point of any college hoops game, let alone one with the importance of March Madness.
Players, coaches and the refs themselves agree that the best referees are always present, but rarely noticed, as Bob Katz notes in his new book, The Whistleblower: Rooting for the Ref in the High-Stakes World of College Basketball.
