Basketball refs don't deserve to have every decision questioned, even if standards must improve

It is widely documented the lack of referees in various sports around this country is a major issue and from what I have been witnessing this season in basketball it is little wonder people are slow to take up refereeing.

First of all, games take up to two hours to complete and after some soul searching I actually identified the problem.

In the Men’s and Women’s Super League games this scribe has covered players and coaches are consistently questioning calls made by various referees.

Now I am not speaking about the odd call it is 90% of the time which has become a real bore to witness. To be fair the quality of referees at the top tier of Irish basketball is not good but the reality is that without them we have no games.

The biggest problem around the country is that people are taking up refereeing with no understanding of the game and that’s showing in their performances. Cork is supposed to be the hotbed of Irish basketball going back to the golden era of the '80s but at the moment we have only two referees that are doing games in the Super Leagues.

Another problem is that the governing body of referees are not assessing them at games because some of the performances from some officials are simply not good enough.

On the other side of the coin, referees deserve respect but will somebody tell them hearing the confessions of players and coaches is not what this sport is about!

Respect for referees is a must but it takes two to tango and hopefully this issue will be sorted as the present situation is turning spectators away.

It was another bad week for Energywise Ireland Neptune as they suffered consecutive defeats to Sligo All Stars and Killester. Losing at home to Sligo was a poor display from the Blackpool outfit with new signing Tamyrik Fields only chipping in with a mere eight points.

Sligo are not a good side and a team with the squad players that Neptune have should be winning games of this nature.

A trip to Killester on Saturday was always going to be a true test of their credentials and they did okay in the opening quarter.

To be fair Fields looked far sharper (hitting 35 points) and when he nailed a jumper in the fifth minute it tied the game at 20-20. He pounced again late in the quarter as Neptune led 25-24 entering the second quarter.

On the restart, the trend of the game didn’t change as the teams traded baskets up to the closing minutes to the interval when Killester edged into a 50-42 lead. Credit to Neptune after a slow start they battled back after a slow start in the third before Killester responded and took a 10-point lead into the final quarter.

Coming down the stretch Killester controlled the game and in the closing five minutes showed their class to run out comfortable 23-point winners.

Neptune’s next game is a home clash against Tralee Warriors where a win is a must to keep them in the play-off hunt.

PLEASED

The Address UCC Glanmire coach Mark Scannell will have been pleased with the display of his team in their derby win over Catalyst Fr Mathew’s running out 67-56 winners.

It proved the last game of the season for American Callie Cavanaugh who has returned home for personal reasons and will be replaced by Trinity Oliver who played in Belfast last season.