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Dave Libbey has no soul. I’m convinced of this. Don’t ask me why I’m convinced, I have no reasoning, but if you know who Dave Libbey is, there’s a good chance you might just agree with me.

For those of you who don’t know Libbey, he’s a college basketball referee that makes his home on the West Coast. Libbey has been an official since the early-1980′s, and over the years has worked his way up to a certain level of prominence in the world of NCAA hoops.

If you’re a hardcore Pac-10 basketball fan, you know Dave Libbey, and you subsequently hate Dave Libbey. Amongst his peers, Libbey may be viewed as a savvy veteran of the profession, but to fans and purists everywhere he’s more of a villain than anything else.

When it comes to college basketball, it’s all about Dave Libbey. If Dave Libbey is on the call, then Dave Libbey WILL BE the main attraction. You may not think that’s the case going in, but by the end of the game you’ll know it’s the truth. Libbey maintains an iron-fisted grip over his three-man officiating team and overrules anything and everything his minions attempt to do. You see a charge? Dave Libbey sees a block. You want traveling? Dave Libbey sees dribbling. For some refs, there may be such a thing as a no-call situation. For Dave Libbey, every situation requires his influence.

Dave Libbey is always right.

If you watched the Washington-UCLA game on Saturday, you witnessed Dave Libbey at his best. There were technical fouls, blatantly missed calls, questionably called calls, and even a sign in the Dawg Pack that read “Welcome to the Libbey show.” The billboard in his honor apparently brought out the best in Libbey, as he walked over to the students before the game, blew kisses, and thanked them for spelling his name correctly. As one fan put it, it was little more than “disturbing.”

On message boards around the nation, Libbey is trashed and lambasted by college basketball fans on a seemingly daily basis. However, I did find one message board where the man, the myth, the legend was praised. The forum on Officiating.com is a Dave Libbey lovefest. One user, under the handle “Stripes,” offered this praise of Libbey’s work: “I have been to Dave’s camp held at UCSD. I thought it was excellent. Dave is a great teacher and motivator. At the time I was a JV official…” And we’ll stop you right there. You were a JV official.

Just the fact that Libbey is as well-known as he is, is an indictment on his job and his personality. Officiating is a profession based on anonymity. The less people recognize you, the better. If fans can leave a game never knowing you existed, then that likely means you did a great job. Apparently Dave Libbey doesn’t play by these rules. He thrives on the attention, and he loves to be in control. He goes out of his way to chastise players, talk to coaches, exchange barbs (not necessarily in a friendly manner) with fans, and showcase his douchebag personality every chance he gets. Dave Libbey may be good for officiating, but he ruins the game of basketball.

*For stats on Libbey’s work, click here.

Last June, the Mariners selected relief pitcher Josh Fields, out of the University of Georgia, 20th overall in Major League Baseball’s June amateur draft. For a team buried in the cellar with an already-strong bullpen, the move was questionable at best and pretty much came to sum up the ineptitude of the franchise’s previous management group. Pick any role or position of any other player, and chances are they would have been a better fit for this ballclub than a college-aged relief pitcher.

Seven months later, Fields remains unsigned by the team. Under the rules of the draft, the team that selects a player has one year (or until the next June amateur draft comes around) to sign that player, or said player reenters the draft pool the following June.

Initially, the M’s couldn’t sign Fields because his agent is Scott Boras, shark of sharks. Boras was demanding enormous sums of money for a player who doesn’t really deserve it. Hell, relief pitchers don’t really deserve to be first-round picks or pull in big money anyways, but try telling that to the Mariners old management group.

Now, however, it appears the M’s may be hesitant to sign Fields for three reasons: a) a rebuilding club has no need for a late-inning specialist b) a rebuilding club has no desire to overspend on a relief pitcher and c) the reward for NOT signing Fields may be greater than actually bringing the former Georgia Bulldog on board.

Points a) and b) are fairly clear. A team that will be lucky to win 70 games this season doesn’t need elite back-end-of-the-bullpen guys, let alone unproven, supposedly-elite guys.. Likewise, such teams should be unwilling to spend freely on seldom-used relievers who won’t really have an impact until this team gets good (which could be five years down the road, who knows). Rather, a team like this year’s Mariners can take chances on one-year, $1 million type guys and try catching lightning in a bottle. Just ask reliever Tyler Walker, a 32-year-old hard-throwing righthander, who the M’s signed for one season and a mere $750,000 (money is relative in the world of pro sports). Walker spent time as a closer during the 2005 season with San Francisco, and now seems destined to fill that role for the 2009 M’s. Taking a chance on a cheap closer with veteran experience is a much safer move than investing millions into an unproven commodity with no experience beyond NCAA baseball.

And then there’s point c), the reward for letting Fields walk. Again, under the quirky laws of Major League Baseball, the June amateur draft can pay dividends to teams unable to reach an agreement with their previous year’s first-round pick. If the Mariners cannot or will not sign Fields, they will be rewarded with a compensatory pick which will essentially become the 21st overall pick in the ’09 draft. In addition, the M’s already hold the second overall pick in the draft, the 28th overall pick in the draft (Philadelphia’s first-round selection, as compensation for signing Raul Ibanez), a “sandwich” pick between the first and second rounds (further compensation for the Ibanez signing), and the second pick in the second round. If Fields walks, the M’s will hold three first-round picks, one sandwich pick, and the early second rounder, meaning they will get a crack at five very high-caliber players to add to their system. Furthermore, the ’09 draft class is rumored to be significantly stronger than that of ’08, meaning the M’s will be in line to pick and choose a higher quality breed of player than they were able to look at last year.

Side note: A brief bit of perspective to throw at you. The Mariners 2003 first-round pick was Adam Jones, current Baltimore Orioles center fielder. Jones was a compensatory pick in the that draft and was selected 37th overall by the team. Depending on the number of compensatory and sandwich picks issued this year, potentially all five of the Mariners early-round picks could come before that 37th slot. At the very least, the M’s would have three picks (#2 overall, #21, and #28) within that frame were Fields not to sign.

On a positive note, Mariners GM Jack Zduriencik recently stated that a Fields signing “is not imminent.” So whether you like it or not, we may be headed down this road anyways. Which, for a team trying to climb their way out of the basement, is great news.

During Saturday’s Arizona-Houston men’s basketball game, Arizona forward Chase Budinger was on the receiving end of an Aubrey Coleman head trampling that, to anyone outside of Stevie Wonder or Helen Keller, was clearly intentional.

The events transpired immediately following a charging foul call on Houston’s Coleman. Budinger, who took the charge, was sprawled on the ground before falling victim to Coleman’s best attempt at a curb stomp. Pretty cold blooded if you ask me.

Worse yet, Coleman (who was ejected shortly thereafter) could be seen celebrating with teammates following his violent outburst.

Houston coach Tom Penders, who apparently condones this sort of thing, defended his player’s actions after the game. “I know Aubrey, and I have never seen him lose his temper or composure or anything,” said Penders. “I’m just sorry the official interpreted [the stomp] that way. The way I saw it, Aubrey got tangled, and his momentum carried him forward, and I think it was a mistake.” Penders, I think your parents fornicating was a mistake. As for Coleman, a month suspension wouldn’t be out of the question. There are just some things you don’t do.

Husky basketball fans and current Dawg Pack student section members Molly Waldron and Alicia Miller chronicle their journey to the depths of Eugene, Oregon in this five-part series following the team on a recent road trip.

Diary of a Road Trip: Part V, Victory
By Molly Waldron

9:20 PM, Thursday Night, Post-Game

The Huskies win it 84-67 and our road trip is instantly validated.

We linger in the stadium to pick fights with Oregon students, but almost the entire Pit Crew left the stadium with about four minutes left in the game, when it was clear this was a blowout. The few remaining attempt a chant “Let’s-play-foot-ball,” but it’s barely audible and fails to catch on.
With two minutes left, we wave goodbye to everyone standing up, leaving their seats around us, obnoxiously wishing them a safe trip home. Deciding it would be wrong of us to leave graciously, we use the back of our sign to make a new one that reads, “WINNERS GET THE RIGHT OF WAY”, an attempt at evading the long line of cars getting out of the parking areas.

I hold our sign out the window and sunroof, eliciting a few volatile exchanges with forlorn Oregon fans. Behaving ourselves at sporting events was never our forte.

We get very lost looking for somewhere to buy iced coffees (how Seattle can we get?) but the only option open is McDonalds, so we go for the golden arches. With caffeine, sugar, and the pure adrenaline that can only come from witnessing the team you love beat a rival in a blowout, we bypass our planned overnight stay in Portland and make it all the way home to Seattle at 2 am, retire our poster to the Wall of Fame, and hit the sack, heinously exhausted yet completely content.