John Higgins, who has been selected to nine Final Fours and called two NCAA Division I National Championship games, was named the new Coordinator of Officials for the Western Basketball Officiating Consortium in May 2023.
In this role, Higgins will be charged with recruiting, selecting, developing, evaluating and assigning officials for every men’s basketball game hosted by schools in the WBOC, which comprises the Big Sky, Big West, Mountain West, Pac-12, Western Athletic, and West Coast Conferences.
Long regarded as one of college basketball's top officials, Higgins will replace outgoing longtime coordinator Bobby Dibler, who announced in March his retirement effective this summer. Higgins will assume the role June 1.
Higgins has spent the past 35 years as an on-court official across more than a dozen conferences, including nearly two decades working games in the western U.S. and on the roster of the WBOC since its inception. He has been on the crew for nine of the last 14 Final Fours, including court assignments to the 2013 and 2016 national title games.
All totaled, Higgins has officiated in 29 NCAA Tournaments including 17 regional rounds, and an estimated 60 conference tournaments and 40 league title games at the Division I level.
In 2017, he was named Men's College Official of the Year by the Naismith Awards and Atlanta Tipoff Club, an honor bestowed upon veteran officials who display character, integrity and dignity, while contributing mightily to the growth, success and viability of college basketball.
Higgins began his officiating career in 1988 working games in the Missouri Valley Conference, and was a four-year letterwinner and member of an NAIA national semifinal team at Nebraska Kearney from 1979-83.