MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Mike Eades began a stellar run as a college basketball official in 1992 in the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. 28 years later, he is the new coordinator of men’s basketball officials for the Southeastern Conference.
“It kind of surprised me when I received a call to see if I would be interested,” Eades said. “Actually I was laughing. I said, ‘You are really interested in me to do this job?’
“I thought about it for a couple days — the pros and cons. I had six pages of notes for when I spoke with them again. A couple days later I called and bam, bam, bam, here we are. It was a great opportunity and it was something I always wanted to do.”
Eades has held the same position with the Mountain East Conference since the league’s inception in the 2013-2014 season.
“It has actually helped to be prepare me for the new position I have. It was a great opportunity to listen to coaches and let them vent. When coaches are right, you can’t try to circumvent because you lose all credibility. When referees are wrong, they are wrong. But often times, they are right.”
The 56-year-old native of Princeton, West Virginia and Bluefield State graduate has officiated at the Division I level for 24 years and built a reputation as one of the top referees in the college game. He has earned Elite 8 assignments five times and has been on the call for Final Fours in 2015, 2016 and 2017.
“I have left blood all over America, the blood of missed calls I have had. That’s part of the business, you are going to make mistakes. But you talk about them. We learn from them and we don’t make them repetitive.”
In his new role with the SEC, Eades will no longer take the court as an official. His role will strictly be an administrative one.
“The timing was right. I was injured last year and missed about forty games. You never think about getting injured, until you get injured. After you are injured and are out for a long period of time, you are like ‘Wow’. I thought I could run forever and you realize you can’t.”
Eades will be responsible for creating and training a staff of officials. The SEC shares an officials consortium with the AAC, the Atlantic Sun, the Sun Belt and the Southern Conferences.
“I grade and evaluate games. I watch all the games. When I refereed, I only had to worry about one game a night.”
Known as an effective communicator, Eades will focus on making sure his officials are well-versed in how to approach and deal with coaches.
“If you can’t communicate as a referee, your ceiling is only so high. So that’s a big thing I will be promoting.”
“You have to field phone calls from coaches. Normally, when coaches call it isn’t to say, ‘Hey, what a great job Mike Eades did’. I have had a lot of coaches reach out to me with text messages. Maybe they are glad I am gone, I don’t know. But they are saying all the right things in the text.”
Stepping away from the hardwood will be challenging for Eades, especially when marquee matchups appear on the schedule.
“There is a referee high. And people who referee, they get it. They understand. You arrive at a game, and say it is a big game, take Kentucky at Auburn.
“The crowd is rocking. The place is on fire and it is actually buzzing. Lights are on. It is on ESPN. Saturday night, six o’clock, everybody is watching. You get a feeling like I am glad to be a part of this. You throw the ball up — bang, you go to work. I will miss that. That is something you can’t replace.”
On the flip side, early mornings and lengthy road trips are no longer on his daily itinerary.
“Things I won’t miss are getting up at 4:30, 5:00 in the morning to catch an early flight and being away from home a lot.”