First, thanks to all who came: Players, coaches, fans, officials, etc.
Second, thanks to all the volunteers from Campolindo and Bentley who made the event a success.
Now, on to Berkeley-Miramonte ...
1) As everyone probably knows by now, I think blaming/whining about/focusing on officials at high school games is pointless. Officiating is very difficult, almost all of those who have exceptional talent, or the time to devote, move up and out of high school officiating fairly quickly. Those who remain are hard-working men and women who do a difficult job under stressful situations as best they can.
Those officials also do a tremendous number of games. Every official at the Showdown that I talked to had done three games the night before. One official said he had 35 games in the month of January. This is a demanding avocation, mentally and physically, and no one is in it for the money. (The rate is approximately $60 a game, and there are no paid expenses (gas, etc.) and travel time is not part of the equation.)
So to say that the officials are "bought" simply makes no sense. There is no significant amount of money involved anywhere in girls' basketball. Who is going to "buy" an official and how much would they supposedly pay? (Also, just consider the logistics, as no one at the Showdown knew who was officiating any of the games beforehand except me -- and I never looked at Arbiter to see. So did a Miramonte booster go upstairs at Bentley, ask the officials there who was working the Berkeley game and slip them $100 each? How do you think that conversation went down? Do you think every ref would happily take the money and then throw the game? I would love to hear a plausible scenario about how officials are "bought" at the high school level.)
2) Now, to the racial question. Three white males officiated the Miramonte-Berkeley game. I am a white male. Miramonte had two African-American girls and one or two other girls of color. Berkeley was all African-American.
I do not know if the Contra Costa Basketball Officials' Association regularly works Berkeley games, or if that league's assignments are through the East Bay Officials' Association. The CCBOA supplied the refs Saturday.
It is certainly possible that unconscious racial bias plays a part in officiating (as it does in almost every walk of life, sadly). It is certainly possible that Berkeley got the worst of the calls on Saturday.
I think, however, it is quite a large -- and unwarranted -- leap to assert that the officials were consciously out to make sure Berkeley lost the game.
As for the incident itself: I was doing the 30-second clock for the game, and thus was about 15 feet from Cheryl Draper. She had been complaining that Sabrina Ionescu was pushing off and extending her non-dribbling arm when she was pressured. From my angle, that appeared to happen on several occasions; it also appeared, from my angle, that the Berkeley guards bumped Ionescu every time she got within about five feet of the top of the key. They didn't necessarily displace her, but there was definitely contact. And the same could be said of Ionescu's off-arm: It didn't necessarily displace the defender, but there was definitely contact.
Reasonable people can certainly disagree about my observations. Some might feel Ionescu initiated the contact and was primarily at fault; some might say the Berkeley defenders initiated the contact and were primarily at fault. Others might say it was a physical game and the officials let the contact go.
Berkeley, however, like most teams, could not stay in front of Ionescu and she got to the rim pretty much whenever she wanted, and drew numerous fouls. When you pressure a guard like Ionescu, you take away the three but you give up penetration, and penetration often leads to fouls.
As Berkeley's frustration mounted on the court, Draper complained more loudly -- but never in a confrontational or aggressive manner -- about Ionescu pushing off, and when No. 12 fouled out, she wanted to know what 12 had done. At that point, a technical foul was called and Ionescu shot four free throws. One official told Draper "I'm trying to get the answer to your question (he needed to talk to the ref who made the call) but I can't now (the technical was being administered)."
When the next foul was called, almost immediately thereafter, Jaimoni Welch-Coleman picked up her second technical foul and Draper pulled her team from the court.
After the game, I heard two competing claims. The first was that someone in the stands behind Draper had used the N-word. As I mentioned, I was 15 feet away from her and did not hear it. Also, those who have been to Bentley might recall there are only about six rows of bleachers behind the benches, and the fans behind Berkeley's bench were, to my eyes, all Berkeley supporters. It seems unlikely, though certainly not impossible, that a non-Berkeley fan used the N-word behind the Berkeley bench in the midst of the Berkeley fans. But it could have happened.
The second claim was that Miramonte players had used the N-word on the court just before Draper pulled her team. If so, there was no communication from the floor to Draper that I saw or heard that indicated that had taken place, and Draper pulled her team when the players had lined up for a free throw and it didn't appear any on-court conversations were taking place.
This doesn't mean that such an exchange did not occur, or that Draper was not informed of the exchange, but from my vantage point -- and I was paying close attention at the time -- I did not see evidence of either one.
Again, I'm just one person, and I'm not claiming that I saw or heard everything.
But I did feel it was unfair of Draper to blame the "coaches ... and administrators" of the event for the incident. Given the situation as described above, from my perspective, I don't know what I could have done to prevent the use of the N-word by anyone. I don't know what any coach could have done.
If it happened in the stands, no Berkeley supporter pointed out that person. If it happened on the court, no Berkeley player overtly reacted.
Again, it may have happened in one of the two ways Draper described, or both. Obviously, such conduct is reprehensible and not to be tolerated, and had any mention of it been made at the time, we would have done all that we could, but the first we heard about it was after the game when Draper was talking to the media.
All in all, it was a most unfortunate incident. Berkeley has come to the Showdown in its various incarnations almost every year since its inception, and has been a crucial and welcome part of the yearly lineup. I'm hopeful all of the confusion is cleared up quickly and the matter is resolved. Cheryl Draper has always been a good competitor and the Berkeley teams have always played hard and represented their school and city well. It is sad that their participation this year ended the way it did.
