Gary Parrish

Here's Wednesday's Dear Gary ...

Dear Gary: You get the "Irresponsible Journalist Award" for the week and the competition is stiff these days. Congratulations! Just because the game is near the end and tight, that does not give the coach license to run his mouth, be unsporting and berate an official. The coach cost his team a chance to win, not the T administered by the official. This is the kind of drivel that people read and then think it is socially acceptable to behave in unsporting ways because the game is close. Get real. How are you qualified to assess an official's body of work? Is it because of your vast knowledge of officiating rules and philosophy that you have attained over the years spending thousands of dollars of your own money and months at a time in the offseason at training clinics? Is it the hours you have spent reading over the rule book and CCA Manual each year (bet you don't even know what CCA is without Google)? Is it the hours you've spent studying case plays and discussing various plays over the years with your officiating supervisors and colleagues? Please enlighten me on your qualifications to judge the quality of officiating? I will not hold my breath for a response as I know you have none of the above, nor do you have the capacity to formulate a reasonable response based on the elementary school writing I have experienced in your other articles. Stick to writing about what you do know about. I am not sure what that is, but it isn't officiating.

-- Brendan

My Monday Look Back column must've ended up on some college referees message board or something, because I got about eight emails this morning just like the one above, and they all came within an hour of each other. If you missed the Monday Look Back , here's what I wrote that garnered these angry responses ...

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The weekend's terrible officiating award goes to Brad Gaston.

You won't believe what this dude did.

Creighton was up 72-70 on Saturday at George Mason when Justin Carter was called for a block with 18 seconds remaining. Like any coach would, Dana Altman protested the block/charge call, at which point Gaston hit Altman with a technical foul. So George Mason got two technical free throws, and Luke Hancock made them both. Then Cam Long, who was fouled on the play, hit one of two free throws to give George Mason a 73-72 lead.

Creighton, clearly rattled, turned the ball over on the ensuing possession.

George Mason turned that turnover into a Hancock dunk.

Then Carter missed a 3-point attempt at the buzzer.

So the Patriots escaped with a 75-72 victory.

Because of a technical called on Altman.

Now I can't be certain what Altman said or didn't say -- for what it's worth, Altman swears he didn't use profanity -- but to me, that's irrelevant. Unless Altman physically assaulted Gaston (and he didn't), no official should issue a technical at such a key moment so late in any game, especially to Altman, who is far from a maniac like Seton Hall's Bobby Gonzalez.

Altman is respected in this sport, and he had not received a technical since 2007. So why Gaston decided he needed one with 18 seconds left in a one-possession game is something the world might never understand, and here's the worst part: The crew -- Gaston, John Moore and Dan Daily -- was assigned to this BracketBusters rematch by the Missouri Valley Conference, meaning Altman got screwed by his own officials.

Terrible.

Just terrible.

But on the bright side, at least he's not coaching Arkansas.

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So, yeah, I thought Gaston was out of line.

My mind hasn't changed in the past 24 hours.

And if you don't value my opinion, that's fine. But it should be noted that Missouri Valley Conference commissioner Doug Elgin also believes Gaston was wrong to issue the technical. Steven Pivovar at the newspaper in Omaha did an article on it. You can click this link to check it out.

As for all the questions Brendan posed in his email, I can answer them with one word: No.

No, I've never spent thousands of dollars of my own money to go to some referee training clinic. And no, I've never sat around with refs and spent hours discussing plays. And no, I've never read the CCA manual. And no, I did not know what the CCA manual was until Googled it.

But guess what?

None of that is necessary.

Because what I lack in referee training I make up for in common sense, and common sense should tell an official that a technical doesn't need to be called in that situation, not with the game on the line, not unless it's absolutely unavoidable. By all accounts, what Dana Altman did was the same thing coaches do 15 times a game, which is express displeasure about a questionable call. There is no evidence that he crossed any so-called line, no evidence that he did anything wild or crazy to the point where it made sense for an official to change the outcome of the game.

So again, Brad Gaston messed up.

It happens.

People make mistakes.

He made one.

And contrary to what Brendan thinks, defending Gaston isn't being smart.

It's just another mistake.