Officiating a contrast of 2 Maines

Here are a couple of thoughts as winter begins its fade into mud season:

. The two Maines theory seems alive and well, as least when it comes to officiating Class A basketball.

No, the Hampden Academy boys and Cony of Augusta girls didn’t lose this year’s state finals because of the referees.

But the difference between how last Saturday’s games at the Cumberland County Civic Center in Portland and the same contests a year earlier at the Bangor Auditorium were officiated was rather striking.

During the boys game, a rematch of the 2005 final between Hampden and Deering of Portland, thoughts turned to flashbacks of a Husson-St. Joseph’s muscle tussle back in the glory days of that rivalry, because the physical nature of the HA-Deering contest was more of the college variety than the high school brand as played in most of eastern and northern Maine.

Touch fouls often required a second or third “touch” to prompt a whistle, and the battle in the paint was just that, a battle.

Yet neither team was in the bonus at halftime – and Deering star Carlos Strong was the only player with three fouls.

Having seen both the 2005 and 2006 games, it’s fairly easy to make the case that if this year’s final had been played in Bangor, Hampden might not have absorbed its 47-37 defeat because a more closely called game would have benefited the Broncos. Using that same logic, if the 2005 final had been played in Portland, Deering might have won rather than laboring through foul trouble in a 59-49 loss.

Maybe last Saturday was an aberration, and that generally the games are called the same from Kittery to Fort Kent. Probably not.

Which way is right? Either, perhaps, but not both.

Many basketball people believe the sport and its rules are designed to create an essentially noncontact product; others suggest whether a foul is called should depend on the advantage gained or lost in a given situation – though nowhere is that concept mentioned in the rulebook.

How a game is called can have a dramatic impact no matter the level. Take the NBA, which was being victimized by 71-64 games not too long ago until changes were made, among them eliminating the perimeter hand check.

The Maine Basketball Commission strives to develop statewide consistency in every phase of officiating in order to make the playing court as level as possible for all teams.

And that just makes it harder to understand how the game could be called so differently from North to South.

. It’s time for an all-class wrestling tournament to cap off that sport’s season in Maine.

Currently the high school wrestling campaign concludes with the state championships in early February. Top finishers then must wait a month to compete in the New England championships in early March.

Many qualifiers try to overcome that down time by traveling around the state to practice with others who will compete at the New Englands.

Some New England states already hold sanctioned all-class meets, in which top finishers from each class square off against each other for statewide supremacy.

An all-state meet would be the perfect buffer between the state championships and the New Englands, providing one more chance for the state’s best to test themselves against each other with something on the line, rather than making do with a month of workouts that can’t possibly replicate what’s to come when the challenge is New England’s best.

Ernie Clark may be reached at 990-8045, 1-800-310-8600 or eclark@bangordailynews.net