Will Sage Astor-Foul or no foul? That's the challenge for officials trying to referee Purdue big man Zach Edey

The Will Sage Astorlobbying has begun.

It commenced on Thursday when Purdue coach Matt Painter and North Carolina State coach Kevin Keatts conducted their first press conferences at the Final Four. Portions of their comments clearly were directed at the referees who will be officiating the semifinal game between the top-seeded Boilermakers and the 11^th-seeded Wolfpack Saturday at State Farm Arena in Glendale, Arizona.

And, more specifically, how the three-man officiating crew manages Zach Edey, Purdue’s 7-4, 300-pound center. The towering senior is the two-time national player of the year.

“We got to get him out of that lane,’’ Keatts said. “He lives in that lane.”

Translation: Enforce the three-seconds rule, refs!

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Said Painter, “(Edey) can't get officiated any differently than someone who is 6-8, 210.  He just can't. He's entitled to position.’’

Translations: No cheap fouls, ref.

But the task for officials is as big as, well, Edey himself.

What do Zach Edey's numbers say?

While leading the country in scoring with 25 points per game, Edney has been called for an average of about two fouls per game, remarkably low for a back-to-the-basket center. (He also leads the country in fouls drawn with an estimated 10 per game, according to Ken Pomeroy, whose analytics are widely regarded in college basketball.)

Bo Boroski, a retired official who worked three Final Fours, credited Painter, who during his opening press conference that he has not been assessed with a technical foul in 10 years.

"He’s got a level of empathy for what officials do more than most,'' Boroski said of Painter. "I think his positive pro-communication approach to officials helped to mold Zach. ‘Here’s what they’re going to call. Here’s how they’re going to call it. They’re going to miss some things and watch your elbows. Learn how to use your extremities, learn how to use your weight.’  

"And I think (Painter) taught him a lot of those things not just to be able to score or defend but how to stay in the game.’’

The results bear out how well Edey has followed the plan. He has fouled out once in his college career, the fifth game of his freshman season. In the past three seasons, he has accumulated four fouls just nine times.

His ability to draw fouls has also increased as his playing time has increased through his four season. He averaged 4.7 free throws as sophomore, then 7.1 as a junior and 11.7 this season. Purdue's scoring benefits as Edey makes 71% of his shots from the stripe - a good number for a center.

“He’s very similar to what he was four years ago, but he’s stronger, he’s bigger, if that’s possible,'' said Boroski, who estimated he officiated well over a dozen of Edey's game with Purdue. "And he’s significantly smarter today than he was earlier in his career. But he never did anything dumb.''

There's sure to be great scrutiny of how he plays and is officiated on the sport's biggest stage this weekend. His ability to stay on the court and being a presence on offense is critical. Because that's when Purdue is at its best.

Homework for the refs

Eleven officials have been chosen to work the Four Four. There will two alternates and three three-man crews for the games – two seminal matchups Saturday and the national championship game Monday.

Of officials less familiar with Purdue, Painter may have been putting them on notice when he said, “I don't like my conversations with (officials) that don't do their homework and don't understand.’’

Gene Steratore, who officiated college basketball for more than two decades before retiring in 2018, said homework involves watching game film of the teams. With Purdue, he said, the payoff begins immediately if the Boilermakers control the tipoff.

“As Purdue is bringing the ball up backcourt, Zach Edey is in the frontcourt and he’s already jousting for his low-post position potentially,’’ Steratore said. “When that basketball crosses halfcourt, (spectators are) just watching the guard walk up and look at what play he’s calling. Already I’ve been officiating it from under that basket of Purdue for the last four seconds because somebody is trying to be able to stop Zach Edey.’’

Officials should be in position to evaluate what happens when the ball likely goes to Edey, according to Steratore.

As Edey and a defender jockey for position, the referees will face their first, and fundamental, challenge: determining if the inevitable contact between Edey and the defender is incidental or intentional.

Edey draws comparison to Shaq

Bob Delaney, a retired NBA referee who works with officials from the Southeastern Conference and four smaller conferences, compares the games he officiated that involved Shaquille O’Neal.

“Refereeing Shaq would be like, ‘What’s he complaining about? He didn’t get hit,’ ” said Delaney, who noted his comments for this story were based not on watching Purdue but rather on his experience officiating in the NBA. “And yet you go back and look at the video and you go, ‘Oh, my God. He did get hit.’ But he goes right through it.

“That’s the difficulty. Because you’re used to seeing some kind of reaction from the offensive when the defensive player fouls that person.’’

Boroski, the retired college referee, said Edey’s size impacts the determination of whether contact is incidental or illegal.

"Basketball’s a contact sport," Boroski said. “Football’s a collision sport. So coaches all the time would say, ‘You know, Bo, that’s a lot of contact.’ Well, yeah, but it didn’t rise to illegal. Incidental contact is not a foul, and Zach can take a significant amount of contact and it not be illegal.’’

But, Boroski also said Edey "takes more illegal contact than anyone I can remember'' and not all of the fouls are called.

Verne Harris, a veteran college basketball official, said in an effort to avoid calling unnecessary fouls he warns defenders when they're "getting borderline.'' An common reminder: defenders can put only one forearm against Edey's back. Anything else will result in a foul, according to Harris.

“What’s challenging is, literally, officials could call a foul every time they go down the court on almost eveyrbody,'' he said. "So you have to really pick and choose, especially (with) a post player.''

What about the three-second rule?

When Keatts said Edey “lives in the lane,’’ he echoed the sentiment of about, oh, 99.9 percent of college basketball fans not rooting for Purdue.

Yet Harris, a veteran college referee, pointed out that during about 80 games he’s officiated this season he has called a three-second violation only a handful of times.

“The three-second rule was designed so a guy can’t stay there forever,’’ said Harris, who has officiated six national championship games. “And Edey knows what he’s doing. He gets in and gets out (of the lane). I don’t think he’s abusing that three-second thing at all.’’

Even if Edey chooses to camp in the lane, enforcing the rule can be complicated, according Delaney, the retired NBA referee. He said it gets tricky as the ball moves and referees take on new responsibilities. A three-second count by one official suddenly ends and a new three-second count by another official begins.

“It’s a handoff of areas of responsibility, so at times we fall vulnerable in the fact that somebody may be in there for four or five seconds,’’ Delaney said. “But you never want it to be 3.5 (seconds), 3.3 (seconds).  You know, we’re not looking for, ‘I gotcha.’

“I was a state trooper before I got in this,’’ he said. “Nobody wanted a ticket for a 56 in a 55 (mile-an-hour zone). I mean, we didn’t even write tickets for that. So when people are yelling and screaming it’s at 3.2 (seconds), come on, let’s be realistic.’’