Favorite or Hated NCAA D1 refs ?

M

matt105

Well-known member
Steve Honzo ( HONZO ) was a favorite . although he lived in Pa. he always showed up with a wonderful tan . SJ opposing fans believed he was in SJu ' pocket . He reffed the great SJU victory over Cazzie Russel's Mich. team in the Holiday Festival .
 
Had a lot of respect for Mike Kitts. Got to know him pretty well when they used to run a Big East referee camp in conjunction with ABCD Camp That I was involved with at Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Thought he got a raw deal because of a missed call during an NCAA tourney game a few years ago.
 
I always liked Larry Lembo. He was a star player at Manhattan College and was my Physical education instructor at Queensborough CC (affectionately known to locals as "The Boro") during my first year of college. He was a great guy and an excellent referee. He was selected to ref Final Four games and I believe that he reffed the championship game more than once.
 
John Cahill was another great ref. He was so good that, if you are a college basketball junkie like me, you would see him working almost every night in different parts of the country. In his later years, he became a supervisor of officials.

John was truly one of the best of his era IMO.
 
Steve Honzo ( HONZO ) was a favorite . although he lived in Pa. he always showed up with a wonderful tan . SJ opposing fans believed he was in SJu ' pocket . He reffed the great SJU victory over Cazzie Russel's Mich. team in the Holiday Festival .
Click to expand...
Opposing and St. John's fans thought he favored St. John's.
 
Steve Honzo ( HONZO ) was a favorite . although he lived in Pa. he always showed up with a wonderful tan . SJ opposing fans believed he was in SJu ' pocket . He reffed the great SJU victory over Cazzie Russel's Mich. team in the Holiday Festival .
Click to expand...
Opposing and St. John's fans thought he favored St. John's.
Click to expand...

Favorite - Steve Honzo, no one else even close
Hated - many to choose from. Two would be the ref who called the foul and tech on Billy Singleton, at a crucial time, in the NCAA game vs Duke and the ref who did not call the charge on Louie Orr at the end of the Syracuse game, at alumni hall, in the seventies.
The game that ended the SJU-Honzo lovefest was the 1971 NIT semi game vs Army, when he called a phantom foul on Army that led to two Rich Lyons free throws with no time left. We won by one point. Bobby Knight went crazy and still brings in up. We lost the final to Al McGuire's Marquette Warriors.
 
Mickey Crowley-the ref that did not call the charge against Louir Orr. He must have required an escort
getting out of Alumni Hall that night.
He was the worst.
Barney Rubble a/k/a Jim Burr, a close second.
 
Does anyone have a recording of the SJU Duke game with billy Singleton being given the tech ?. I thought i saw it on this site a few years ago .
 
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