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Officials Use Tablets To Look At Plays During The Half

By DOUG FEINBERG, AP Basketball Writer

DALLAS (AP) — Officials are always looking for ways to improve their accuracy on calls.

Now many of them have the opportunity to review plays at halftime thanks to technology developed by DVSport.

"Officials are always working hard to get it right," said Deb Williamson, who is the officials' coordinator of the Big East and American Athletic Conference. "Using the tablets at halftime is about how we can do things better in the second half. It's a great education tool."

DVSport created a program that can be used on a tablet for officials to look at plays during the half.

"You're not going to make a major adjustment on a singular play, but there always are one or two plays that you get another look at it to see if we got the play right," said veteran official Joe Vasily. "Our goal is to get 100 percent accuracy, that's what we strive for. There's always going to be a couple plays in each half that you want to see if we got them right or not. It's a learning tool for us, too."

The tablet was used at the Big East and American Conference tournaments by officials on both the men's and women's side this past March.

"At the conference tournaments, the standby official would bring the tablet into the locker room and would have the plays all ready for us to look it," Vasily said. "The standby official sits with the DVSport system and marks plays that we will want to see at the half."

The NCAA has been using the tablets at the Final Four for the last few years, but only for postgame reviews.

"It's amazing technology and really helps educate our officials," said NCAA national coordinator of officials June Courteau. "The DVSport people are very receptive to anything we want to change or add."

Courteau said she'd love to see them used at the half as well, but the NCAA needs to wait until all the officials and conferences use them so everyone is on the same page.

DVSport started more than a decade ago with football and basketball, but recently has been working more with officials. Their instant replay technology is used in many conferences, including the ACC, Big Ten and Big 12.

"We give them the ability to quickly watch plays in game and postgame," said Kim Jackson, who is the director of basketball operations for DVSport. "They can take their iPads and watch a game as they are going home or on a plane."

Jackson said the technology is also used by coaches and doctors in basketball and football, including the NFL.

"It gives a chance for doctors and trainers to see exactly how plays happened by having many different angles of an injury," Jackson said. "We are just starting to scratch the surface of its uses."

(Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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