Sound familiar? If so, you know we're talking about officiating. As someone who has been involved in intercollegiate basketball for the last 24 years as a player, coach, institutional administrator, and now conference administrator, my first comment is, "Hey gang, give it a rest."

Yes, I am talking to you fans, administrators, coaches and players.

Officiating is a part of the game -- no more and no less. The individuals who work in basketball officiating are not the reason for the game. Yet throughout the last two years, the scrutiny directed toward the game officials has swung out of balance. Every call or no-call, every gesture or movement, and every spoken or unspoken word is criticized when it comes to officiating. Let's not forget that we need the officials to play the game -- unless, of course, you want to go back to shirts and skins and calling your own fouls.

I recently told a group I was addressing at a conference meeting that the pool of available officials -- with the skill and experience to call Division I basketball games -- is limited. When asked why, I paused for a moment and responded, "Because officiating is not perceived as an honorable profession, and until we change this perception we will continue to search for new officials to fill the number of available slots on Division I rosters."

Many people can't remember the last time they attended a game and didn't yell at the officials. I attended a fan sportsmanship summit in Dallas last year and a speaker noted that if an official makes a bad call we stand up and shout unpleasantries -- but if a coach makes a bad decision we typically don't shout our discontent. A better example, off the court, is when we are at a professional conference and the presenter or facilitator is less than outstanding -- we don't shout them off the podium. So why the difference?

I believe it is a cultural acceptance that it is OK to shout at and belittle sport officials at any level, in any game we attend; yet this behavior is not accepted in just about any other profession.

Now I am really going to blow your mind. I will grant that yelling at sports officials is part of the game. What I contend is that it's not part of the game 100 percent of the time. The pendulum has swung, and criticizing every call made by the officials has become an American pastime. Unfortunately, it is hurting the sport. To constantly disparage one facet of a game is damaging to that game. It takes the focus away from the players, the coach's strategy and the great collegiate environment and magnifies a small facet of the game. Ironically, the ranting and raving at officials often is unwarranted, since their supposed "bad calls" are validated as the correct calls on television replays. Most crews get the vast majority of the calls right.

Perhaps the real truth is that we don't want the official to make the right call against "our team." It is as simple as that. An official who makes any call, right or wrong, against our opponent rarely incurs a word of dismay from the home bench or fans. Indeed, we want officials to make the right call, but only against our opponents.

Now I'll admit there are bad calls and bad no-calls, but that's part of the game, too. For every "missed" call that negatively affects "your team," there is probably a "missed" call that negatively affected "their team." Same with the good calls.

The key is not to have too many of those misses -- which brings us back to that pool of available skilled and knowledgeable officials. We can't fill the pool until we have enough people to choose from, and we won't have enough people to choose from until we change the perception and appreciate the fact that officiating is an honorable profession.

So: "Hey gang, give it a rest!"

Bernadette V. McGlade is an associate commissioner at the Atlantic Coast Conference and coordinator of officials for the ACC, Big South and Southern Conferences.