Behind the Backboard: With Lack of Indisputable Evidence, Referees Make Correct Call on Buzzer-Beater, Game Winner

With just seconds to go in the second half of Friday night's Wagner College vs. Santa Clara basketball contest, the Seahawks and Broncos were tied at 62 points apiece and looked poised for overtime.

That's when Wagner sophomore Kenneth "Kenny" Ortiz stepped in.

After a wild, backboard hitting attempt by Seahawks senior guard Tyler Murray, Ortiz was in the right place at the right time to set up one of the craziest finishes to a college basketball season thus far during the 2011-12 NCAA season.

Ortiz corralled the wild carom, heaving up a frantic prayer just fractions of a second before the final horn sounded, the clock struck zero and the backboard's red lights illuminated.

UEFL 2012: League Registration and Appeals Board Nomination

The Umpire Ejection Fantasy League is pleased to announce the 2012 season's registration process.

Per Rule 1:

a.     A post announcing the opening of registrations shall appear on the UEFL website no later than two months prior to the start of the regular season. This post shall instruct members on the proper methods of signing up to participate in the UEFL for the upcoming season and will contain all appropriate pre-draft deadlines.

b.     Once the registration period is closed, a draft order shall be pre-assigned (see Rule 1-1-c and 1-1-d). Four umpires shall be drafted by each UEFL member in the form of one (1) crew chief per Rule 1-2, one (1) primary umpire per Rule 1-3 and two (2) secondary umpires per Rule 1-4.

c.     The draft will be conducted in two phases: Phase one encompasses the crew/primary round while phase two encompasses the secondary draft.

For more information about the UEFL draft and selection process, see the 2012 UEFL Rules Book. Note that the draft will occur in March 2012, no umpires will be selected until a draft order has been determined in March.

Any visitor, guest or user may become a league member. There is no cost to register for this league. If you would like to register for the 2012 season, please respond to this post with your requested username. If you participated during the 2011 season, please use the same username or otherwise mention what your username was last season. Do not select umpires during the registration process.

Important: It is recommended that UEFL members be placed on an e-mail list so that we may expeditiously communicate important site-related news, including UEFL draft order. If you wish to be included, click here to e-mail the primary UEFL Commissioner with your username and registration information.

For verification purposes, we also highly recommend that all league members do not post anonymously or with a write-in (Name/URL) username. Blogger's comment system accepts Google, Livejournal, Wordpress, TypePad, AIM and OpenID accounts. The reason for this is so that we may verify your identity during the registration, draft, challenge and case play processes.

Per Rule 6-4-a, the UEFL announces the creation of an Appeals Board that shall routinely rule on issues of Quality of Correctness. Any visitor, guest or user may become an Appeals Board member and may or may not also be a league member. The Appeals Board operates on a voluntary basis only and is a one-year term (no term limits). To apply, you must e-mail the primary UEFL Commissioner with your nomination. If you are interested in nominating yourself for the two at-large Appeals Board vacancies, please consider the following requirements:

• Ability to separate subjectivity from objective analysis;
• Extensive rules knowledge or ability to attain exceptional proficiency without significant disputation of UEFL rule interpretations;
• Ability to objectively and thoroughly analyze plays to determine Quality of Correctness
• Availability to respond to the "Office of the UEFL Commissioner" in a timely fashion. Generally, within 48 hours of being notified of the appeal.
• Board members, including Commissioners, will be required to abstain from ruling on plays involving their drafted umpires (or crews, if applicable);
• Board members with no drafted umpires may request ample abstention from a limited number of appeals if so desired, which may be comparable to appeals abstained from by Board members with drafted umpires.

The UEFL pre-sesason shall commence in observance of the following schedule. Note that all deadlines, except otherwise noted, will extend to 11:59 PM Pacific Time on the date indicated:

• November 27, 2011 (Sunday): Registration and Appeals Board nomination processes open
• March 5, 2012 (Monday): Registration process closed
• March 9, 2012 (Friday): Draft order decided and distributed after registrations closed; latest of March 9.
• March 10, 2012 (Saturday): Crew and Primary rounds of the draft open. These rounds will run concurrently.
• March 16, 2012 (Friday): Crew and Primary rounds of the draft closed.
• March 17, 2012 (Saturday): Secondary round of the draft open. This round is conducted publicly and operates according to the draft order that was sent out by March 9, 2012.
• March 23, 2012 (Friday): Appeals Board nominations closed.
• March 24, 2012 (Saturday): Appeals Board voting begins
• March 30, 2012 (Friday): This is the latest day the non-live Secondary draft may close.
• March 30, 2012 (Friday): Appeals Board voting ends
• April 1, 2012 (Sunday): Live Secondary draft. Time TBD. For those participating in the Live Secondary draft, Primary picks may be submitted at this time as well.
• April 2, 2012 (Monday): UEFL rosters and draft results posted
• April 3, 2012 (Tuesday): Last day for roster changes (retirements, pre-season injuries)
• April 4-6, 2012 (Wednesday): Opening Day(s), MLB season begins

If you have any questions, please post here. As you can see, registration will remain open for over four months while Appeals Board nominations will remain open for close to five months. We hope you enjoy this registration process for the 2012 season.

Basketball Ejections: Scott Foster (1)

Crew Chief Scott Foster ejected Mavericks forward Lamar Odom for arguing an offensive foul call during the 3rd Quarter of the Heat-Mavericks Christmas Day season opener game. With 5:06 remaining in the 3rd, Odom was called for an offensive foul on Heat forward LeBron James. Replays indicate that Odom drove into the lane and passed out to Mavericks Guard Jason Terry outside the 3-point arc along the baseline. As Odom passed out to Terry, he crashed into James, who appeared to have obtained legal guarding position. Odom shouted towards Foster, after Foster reported the offensive foul call and was subsequently charged with a technical foul by Foster. Odom then became increasingly unsportsmanlike towards Foster and received a second technical foul from Foster, and with it an ejection. At the time of Odom's ejection, the Heat were leading, 82-54. The Heat ultimately won the contest, 105-94.

This is Scott Foster (48)'s first ejection of the 2011-12 season.

This is the first ejection of of the NBA 2011-12 season.

This is Lamar Odom's first ejection of the 2011-12 season.

This is Lamar Odom's second consecutive ejection in a non-preseason game.

Odom was ejected in his 2010-2011 NBA season finale in the 2011 playoffs with the Los Angeles Lakers for a flagrant foul against Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki in Game 4 of the Western Conference Semi-Finals. Odom was ejected by Scott Foster in that game.

Wrap: LeBron James, Dwayne Wade solid as Heat roast champion Mavs (ESPN)

Video: Lamar Odom Ejected by Scott Foster

Article on Odom Ejection From ESPN

Related UEFL Post

Explaining the NBA 2011-12 Season's Points of Emphasis

As the NBA begins its shortened 2012-plus-one-week-of-2011 season, fans might notice some differences on the court in regards to the officiating: how games are being called, as well as some more seemingly cosmetic parts of the game; such as the 24-second shot clock.

Every year, the NBA's competition committee goes through the league's rules book and interpretation manual, occasionally adding, modifying and deleting sections at a time.

Some rule changes are so substantial—and some old rules additionally become so significant—that the committee sends its crew chiefs, referees and other officials a list of those items, called points of emphasis.

Points of emphasis (POE) are often considered the most important year-to-year revisions or adjustments in the officiating arena. Officials are extensively trained in the new curriculum.

Occasionally, some points of emphasis review concepts unchanged from the previous year, but every POE is correspondingly vital.

Prior to the 2011-2012 season, the NBA trained, drilled and exhaustively tested its officials with the following POE for the upcoming year.

According to NBA executive Vice President of Basketball Operations Stu Jackson, many of the following points of emphasis emanate from the universal truth that "players are always going to have tricks in the game."

With the following POE for the 2011-2012 season, the NBA is clearly trying to crack down on the thespian, phony and dangerous sides of basketball: