For the first time, NCAA basketball officials will use instant replay of high-definition video to review calls during the March Madness tournament.
It will be in use for all men’s and women’s games, including the men’s games that start Thursday at the Consol Energy Center.
The new technology, pioneered by Robinson company DVSport, has the potential to revolutionize the way officials operate, and to speed reviews dramatically, said Kim Jackson, the company’s director of basketball operations. Previously, he said, officials would put on a headset and talk directly to the television producers about the shots and angles they needed for a review — a process that could be greatly complicated by the noise from 20,000 screaming fans.
With the high-definition video now being used by the NCAA, officials use touch screens to fast-forward or rewind through the video, select from multiple angles, zoom in to examine details, or watch the action with frame-by-frame precision, Mr. Jackson said.
“Basketball is a sport of flow and a sport of momentum, and while the most important thing is that you want to get the call right, you also want to be efficient,” he said. “If you have a three- or four-minute delay, the fans get frustrated, the coaches get frustrated, the players get frustrated, and you can ruin the momentum of the game that the team might have built up.”
Delays also can give teams an unearned chance to rest, an advantage they might not have had otherwise, he said.
For officials, the system provides more assurance that they have all the information they need to make the right call.
The referees will be able to see the television feed that fans see, but angles from three more DVSport cameras installed around the court.
“The most important thing is that we can get all the angles and make sure we see what people see at home on TV. ... We utilize replay to make sure we got it right,” veteran official Joe DeRosa told the Associated Press. “It’s really a valuable tool.”
Mr. DeRosa, one of only two officials who has worked both the NCAA Final Four and the NBA Finals, officiated Big 12 Tournament games last week. His regular-season schedule included games in the Big 12, SEC, American and Conference USA, which also use DVSport. The ACC also uses the system, and the Big East men had it available during their tournament last week, according to company officials.
Founded in 2002 by Brian Lowe — a Mt. Lebanon native and a graduate assistant at Pitt under former football coach Walt Harris — the company’s initial mission was to improve software systems used by coaches to produce the films they needed to scout recruits and study opponents. The DVSport system, which also allows coaches and players to use iPads or laptops to analyze film of themselves or of opposing teams, began as a Big Ten football replay pilot program in 2005, according to Mr. Jackson.
Company officials introduced a basketball-specific system in 2010. That system, on which officials are trained each year, also allows them to study the calls they have made, and whether they officiated as well as they could have, Mr. Jackson said.
“A lot of people know that teams watch video and critique themselves, but officials do so as well, so we’ve given them the tools they need to evaluate themselves and to improve the officiating product you see on the floor, ” he said.
Amy McConnell Schaarsmith is a reporter for The Pittsburgh Press, the afternoon electronic edition of the Post-Gazette. She can be reached at aschaarsmith@post-gazette.com.
First Published: March 18, 2015, 7:48 p.m.
Updated: March 18, 2015, 7:48 p.m.
