Will be working as consultant to BigTen
Eddie Hightower.... he's back
- Thread starter 2432Hawk
- Start date
You have to wonder if he’ll be as aggressively wrong in the office as he was on the floor.
I'll bet that he does his own PR...
While many disliked his showmanship, Ed was one of the best officials in CBB. If you don’t believe me, ask the coaches.
My observation of Ed was that even though he played to the crowd, he wasn’t affected by the crowd. A home court advantage with Ed on the floor was 2 or 3 points less a game. Fine if you are the road team, but Iowa got more than it’s share of Ed games at Carver because of Ed being based in St Louis. Trooper that he was, he took many an Iowa game as a weather sub.
As long as he's not on the floor effecting the outcome of the game, I don't care what his job is....it's a free country, he can even show up in the stands and watch the games. He was a worthless ref, that enjoyed the camera...
Yeah, my biggest problem with him had little to do with reffing and everything to do with him needing to be the center of everyone's attention.
Dr. Tom wrote a letter to the Big 10 requesting he not officiate Iowa games. His request was denied. You might be right but there are quite a few coaches who thought he went overboard on playing “favorites”. I’m sure Lou would say he was the BEST in the country as Ed was quite an Illini fan.
The best officials are the least seen, but keep the game from getting out of control, if tempers flare. Can't remember names anymore, but the tall ball guy who has officiated a lot of Iowa B1G games is a pretty good official.
In Education
He was superintendent of schools for Edwardsville.... home of the Epenesa's he retired in 2015.
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Better a consultant than on the floor determining the outcome of games
Couldn't be worse than Bain whistling Kevin Boyle for the phantom foul eons ago and sending Palombizio to the line hitting the winning FTs against us with no time out left. Remember Lute chasing Bain into the tunnel? lol.
Prima donna to be sure. You should never even really recognize an official much less allow them to become a kind limited area star.
The worst part of Hightower is knowing when he was doing you. The guy was capable of being a really great official, to the extent they can be great. He did so many high profile games on neutral courts that it showed the in conference clown shows were intentional.
I'll say this for Ed Hightower, with all his faults and a whole lot of shady games and some outright dishonesty, he was a significant improvement over the guys before him. Significant improvement.
The worst part of Hightower is knowing when he was doing you. The guy was capable of being a really great official, to the extent they can be great. He did so many high profile games on neutral courts that it showed the in conference clown shows were intentional.
I'll say this for Ed Hightower, with all his faults and a whole lot of shady games and some outright dishonesty, he was a significant improvement over the guys before him. Significant improvement.
Bain's officiating in the final three minutes of the Purdue game is Exhibit A of the case for dishonest officiating. Bain's conduct cannot be attributed to a single miscall or good faith mistake because it wasn't just one call and Bain's manner of making the calls showed an unusual degree of aggressive certainty that could not have been genuine. It was also preceded by two games with similarly outcome determinative officiating arising from preposterous calls (e.g. the phantom foul on Mark Gannon (Minnesota) and Kenny Arnold's phantom travel/OB when he was pushed by an Illini giving a foul to stop the clock.
But nothing I've ever seen, other than Kansas being allowed to score on a dead ball perhaps, can top Bain's antics at the end of that Purdue game.
But nothing I've ever seen, other than Kansas being allowed to score on a dead ball perhaps, can top Bain's antics at the end of that Purdue game.
City High grad DJ Carstensen.
I think there were a few officials, like Bain, who had a thing about Lute. Too Handsome, Too beloved, Never swore (well, almost never), but he could get on officials with the best of them.
I do remember Palombizio. Boy I wished he not have transferred to Ball State. Anyhow I don’t remember the call, let alone the ref who made the call. Now I know it was Bain. Sounds like a good ref to me. Lol. I guess we all remember the refs that screw our teams. To me, Rucker was one of the best during those years.
I've always thought that was part of it. The conference leadership did not like Lute because he rocked the boat, sent a lot of tape with bad to blatantly dishonest officiating to the league office-which just expanded the resentment against Lute among the officials.
It was also a time that cable TV was enormously expanding the basketball audience. The Big Ten was clearly promoting and protecting Indiana-they were the hot franchise. The Michigan schools are always important and tOSU is always an important revenue source. You put all that together and you get the "**** Iowa" mentality that kind of carries over from some old officials to some younger officials as the younger begin their Big Ten career. The conference obviously has no interest in stopping it because nothing happens regardless of what the officials do. Now Iowa has another arrogant dickish coach (in games, no larger indictment) alienating an entirely new generation of officials in an even more mercantilist environment with a much stronger profit motive for the Big Ten to accept some officiating atrocities if it works to the advantage of profit generating franchises in the long run (seasonally).
It was also a time that cable TV was enormously expanding the basketball audience. The Big Ten was clearly promoting and protecting Indiana-they were the hot franchise. The Michigan schools are always important and tOSU is always an important revenue source. You put all that together and you get the "**** Iowa" mentality that kind of carries over from some old officials to some younger officials as the younger begin their Big Ten career. The conference obviously has no interest in stopping it because nothing happens regardless of what the officials do. Now Iowa has another arrogant dickish coach (in games, no larger indictment) alienating an entirely new generation of officials in an even more mercantilist environment with a much stronger profit motive for the Big Ten to accept some officiating atrocities if it works to the advantage of profit generating franchises in the long run (seasonally).
Eds not pleased with the new guys lack of showmanship.
Hes got to teach them how to gesticulate with flair at the appropriate time.
Hes got to teach them how to gesticulate with flair at the appropriate time.
Talking about Bain and his Calls in the Purdue game brings back memories of phone call with Mr. Duke the week after the game. Long story but very interesting. As far as Lute Big Ten officiating was one of the reasons he left…along with Bobby wanting to move and the obvious ability to recruit at AU.
The Purdue game that is always mentioned was just the tip of the iceberg for how badly Hawkeye basketball got screwed by Jim Bain and his crew over Lute's last couple of years at Iowa.
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