Barnaky, who finished his third season in the NBA, has mentored Anderson, a rookie. They have refereed NBA Development League and college basketball games together.

Barnaky, of Clearwater, holds a bachelor鈥檚 degree in business administration from 麻豆原创, as well as a Juris Doctor degree from Nova Southeastern University. He takes on a variety of pro-bono legal cases during the offseason.

Anderson, of Orlando, earned a bachelor鈥檚 degree in education and a master鈥檚 degree in higher education from 麻豆原创.

When did you know you wanted to become a referee?

Barnaky: The first time I thought about officiating was when I took the 麻豆原创 officiating course in the late 1990s.聽 Once I realized my high school and college basketball playing days were behind me, I thought I would get into coaching. However, once I took to the basketball floor as an official, I immediately fell in love with the fact that I was still competing, just from a different perspective.

Anderson: I knew during the summer of 2001, when I went to my first basketball officiating camp in Lakeland. I was going to fill in for some games that they needed referees for, and the next thing you know I was signed up for the camp. Other officials and evaluators at the camp were telling me how good I was at such a young age and mentioned how successful I could potentially be if I stuck with it.

What is the toughest call to make on the court?

Barnaky: Out of bounds. Sometimes the ball gets slightly deflected traveling through the lane area, and it鈥檚 nearly impossible to see multiple deflections due to the speed of the game.

What is the biggest misunderstanding fans have about referees?

Barnaky: That we don鈥檛 call traveling violations and that we actually care about the outcome of games. We are sent reams of video footage ingraining us to find the pivot foot first and call illegal violations. When we miss a traveling violation, it is because we are taught to referee the defense and sometimes our peripheral vision isn鈥檛 wide enough to see the violation. Also, we really don鈥檛 care about the outcome. We are the gatekeepers responsible for the integrity of game in its entirety, enforcing and interpreting rules, and, ultimately the judge and the jury.

Anderson: A lot of fans don鈥檛 understand how difficult of a job officiating basketball is. Most fans yell about violations and fouls but don鈥檛 know the rules and have no clue why we call or don鈥檛 call certain plays.

Describe your most interesting conversation with a player or coach.

Barnaky: We are not permitted to have off-court interactions with coaches or players without the NBA鈥檚 permission. That said, I had a funny conversation with (Oklahoma City Coach) Scott Brooks my second year in the league. Near the end of a game that was already decided, he said to me that he thought I officiated a great game but was 鈥渨riting me up鈥� for my ugly referee shoes. I said, 鈥淵ou haven鈥檛 heard 鈥� I am the first NBA official to have a five-year shoe contract to wear these Reebok Reezigs, it鈥檚 a six-figure deal.鈥� It was a funny, relaxed moment 鈥� those don鈥檛 happen much, as the environment is very tense and stressful.

How did your time at 麻豆原创 prepare you for your job?

Barnaky: The intramural department and training provided to the officials are top notch at 麻豆原创. Had I not been introduced to officiating at 麻豆原创, I can confidently say I would not be officiating in the NBA. I understand many intramural departments nationwide have mirrored many of the programs that 麻豆原创 pioneered.

Anderson: Most of the preparation came from the intramural sports program, and I can thank current Recreation and Wellness Center Director Jim Wilkening for that. He was my first mentor in officiating and also hired me as an intramural sports supervisor. The experiences throughout those seven years with the program were extremely valuable.

What advice do you offer to aspiring officials?

Barnaky: 1. Get a degree. 2. Follow your passion in life. 3. Playing the game will help immensely but is not imperative. I think any official who is successful loves the game he/she officiates first and foremost.

Anderson: Be patient. You are not going to become an NBA referee overnight. My journey to the NBA took 13 years, and it was well worth the wait. It鈥檚 also important to have a career that will allow you to take time off work to officiate games, sometimes days at a time throughout the months of November thru April.

What was your favorite 麻豆原创 class?

Barnaky: I really enjoyed the Capstone course in the College of Business. If I had to do it again, I would have also obtained an accounting degree. There are a lot of 鈥渃rossover鈥� issues that arise in the legal world, and having an accounting background would help my clients and practice.

Anderson: My favorite professor was (former 麻豆原创 basketball coach) Torchy Clark. His passion and love for coaching basketball made him a professor who taught with that same passion, and there was never a dull moment in class.

Who was your favorite NBA player while growing up?

Anderson: Nick Anderson from the Orlando Magic. Not only did he have the same last name, but also he was a solid three-point shooter and defensive player, and that was the best part of my game as a youth.

What accomplishment are you most proud of?

Barnaky: Getting married to my wife, Tiffany, and my kids. I have a 3-year-old girl, Lilyana, and a 1-year-old boy, Brody.

Anderson: Getting my two degrees from 麻豆原创. It is extremely important to have something to fall back on if something were to happen with my career as an NBA referee.

Describe your travel schedule.

Barnaky: Our travel schedule is intoxicating. I am home probably five to seven nights a month on average. When I am home, I am locked in trying to be the best husband and dad I can be. I really try to make up for the missed time during the summer. Thank the good Lord for FaceTime on the iPad. I don鈥檛 know how our veteran officials were able to 鈥渓isten鈥� to their kids grow up over the phone lines.

How often do you watch video of your games?

Anderson: I watch video from all of my games and also from games that I am not officiating.聽 One of the main things I look for is did I get the play that I called or did not call correct. If I did not, then I want to check my positioning and angle and see what I could have done differently to get the call or non-call right.

What is your favorite NBA city in which to play tourist?聽

Barnaky: We don鈥檛 have much time to tour cities, but since I live in the great state of Florida with beautiful weather, water, and beaches, I enjoy Utah and Colorado. The view of the snow-capped mountains in the winter is breathtaking.

Anderson: I鈥檓 going to give New York the edge over LA. We typically stay near Times Square, and there is always plenty to do within walking distance.

What is the funniest moment you have experienced while refereeing?

Barnaky: I officiated two summers in the WNBA. One game actor/singer Will Smith was sitting courtside and giving my crew a hard time throughout the game. We had a ball go out of bounds near his seats. As I bent over to pick up the ball, I looked at him and said, 鈥淲e may be bad out here, but we aren鈥檛 nearly as bad as that TV show called the 鈥楩resh Prince of Bel-Air.鈥欌�� As play began again, I looked over and he, his wife and friends were laughing uncontrollably.

Anderson: I haven鈥檛 had a 鈥渇unny鈥� moment yet in the NBA. However, I recall a game in a pretty quiet gym where I went to report a foul and my voice cracked, making me sound like a 12-year old boy going through puberty. Everyone in the gym heard me and started laughing and making fun of me. I had to laugh as well.

While I didn’t know Torchy well-or even a little bit, for that matter-the news of his death saddened me greatly. So much so, in fact, that it’s taken me several months to finally put my thoughts of his passing on paper.

And even though my account of his life won’t be nearly as good as those who knew him intimately, Torchy Clark means enough to me for at least an attempt.

I was lucky enough to play basketball under Torchy’s son, Bo Clark, who has been the head coach at Flagler College for 23 years. Since Bo played for his father at the 麻豆原创, much of Torchy’s passionate personality and quirky traits could easily be seen in Bo, a man I came to admire greatly.

My relationship with Bo, which continues today, has allowed me to indirectly understand Torchy as well as any outsider could, I imagine-through listening to stories, observing the Clark family interact with one another, and by reading articles and columns about the fiery coach.

As a college kid, however, I didn’t fully understand the kind of man Torchy was-even though I pretended to.

He would make it to games occasionally, and he and his wife Claire would always meet us for a pregame meal when we traveled through Orlando, where the couple resided for many years.

He even came and coached us for one rather intense practice, which I can vividly recall to this day. It wasn’t physically intense, but I remember my senses being so heightened that I was about to jump out of my skin. After all, the guy had won a few games in his day, so it was somewhat of an intimidating situation.

He called out a few of my teammates, challenged us, talked a great deal about how to press, how to properly throw and catch a pass, and to be honest about your own shooting range-things that often get overlooked in today’s coaching.

But different phases of our lives don’t allow us to see the full picture at times.

To my na茂ve and young 20-year-old brain, Torchy Clark was this obsessive coach wrapped up in the game of hoops-a wizardly, absent-minded professor of basketball knowledge who could crack some funny jokes.

A member of the Florida Sports Hall of Fame and Sunshine State Conference Hall of Fame, in addition to the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame, Torchy is definitely not short on accolades. His list of accomplishments can fill pages.

But awards don’t mean much to the Clark family.

What the Clark family stands for goes well beyond sports. Torchy Clark loved the game of basketball, and he loved coaching and teaching, but what ultimately drove him was his faith and his family.

This is a lesson we all need to be reminded of sometimes, and it is what resonates so strongly with me now as a 31-year-old husband of nearly seven years, father of a young son, and English teacher and basketball coach.

My family of three doesn’t exactly match Torchy’s five kids and 17 grandkids, but as any parent will tell you, kids change your life completely-and despite the lack of sleep, the daily frustrations, and all the other idiosyncrasies our children possess, they force us to find patience and love in ways we never knew we could.

Many coaches have attempted to document how to successfully infuse coaching and teaching with principles from parenting. John Wooden is one such man.

For years, I have admired Coach Wooden from a distance. His emphasis as a coach was not just on developing players’ skills but on building his players into better people. To this day, he is a devout Christian, and he loves literature, two ideals he reinforced as a coach.

The concepts Wooden stands for are ones I hold dear to my own life, and so I have tried to live up to many of Wooden’s credos.

But I’ve never been in the same room with John Wooden, heard his voice without the assistance of a TV, watched him interact with his children and grandchildren.

Enter Torchy Clark.

Like Wooden, Torchy Clark was also passionate about teaching; in fact, after his coaching career ended, Clark taught classes at 麻豆原创’s College of Education, and the list of grown adults who list Torchy as influential is endless-and ranges from your next door neighbor all the way to Daunte Culpepper.

Even though he is no longer with us, Torchy Clark is more alive to me now than John Wooden will ever be.

Despite the fact that I’ve only known Torchy from a distance, his legacy has been passed down through his family-and eventually it made its way to me. I can only hope that in addition to my own family’s faith and drive, that at least a speck of Torchy’s life will be passed down to my son as well.

One of Torchy’s former players, Brad Garvey, may have said it best with just a few words:

“The torch has gone out, but it will live on forever, that’s for sure.”

Amen.

Source: , by Tim Pollock

Bo scored 2,886 points as a Knight. In 1978-79, he led all Division II players in the country in scoring at 31.6 points per game.

He feels that the banner ceremony is an honor for him and his father, but also for all of the players from the early years of the program.

“I really feel that my number represents all of the players who played during the first 15 years of the program,” he said. “It represents the Jerry Prather’s, the Calvin Lingelbach’s and the Bennie Shaw’s. Every jersey number could go up there. It is not just about Bo Clark, it is more about the players who played during the Torchy Clark era. Anyone who saw me play knows that I needed my teammates. This recognition is for them as well.”

The halftime recognition for the Clark family is part of a basketball Homecoming weekend at 麻豆原创. Head coach Kirk Speraw is inviting all former Knights to attend the game with Massachusetts as part of the school’s Homecoming festivities. Tip-off for Friday’s contest against the Minutemen is set for 7 p.m.