The one mistake Hess did make - and Clougherty made this point - is that there is an intermediate step Hess should have taken, which was to contact the site manager.
As someone who has officiated at the low levels of HS basketball, knowing who is the site manager is a pre-game responsibility of an official. There are a couple of reasons to give some consideration to the official.
1. I have seen a coach who was serving as a radio commentator yell at a ref in a Division 3 college game. The coach/commentator yelled from press row, asking if the ref was related to the other team. He was admonished by a media member who said not to do that at the press table. After the game, the coach/commentator apologized to the admonisher and me, acknowledging he was wrong. What I asked him was how could he lose control given that he was a coach. He said it was difficult being on the sideline.
2. Even if Hess was too hasty, officials do not react well when they are taking heat because the team is playing lousy. I recall a coach complaining about the fact that there were eight fouls called on his team and none on the other team. I gave the tactful, I'm calling each play as I see it. What I was thinking was, "Coach, your kids are getting called for fouls because they can't play defense correctly - that isn't MY fault"
3. An official has to show they have control of the game. When I umpired softball, at first I didn't have a problem with curse words so long as they were adjectives. I was quickly corrected because allowing swear words showed a lack of control and wouldn't look good if a supervisor was watching me officiate. What we don't know is whether the two alumni were being idiots all game. If they were five or ten rows up, than maybe you could say Hess had "rabbit ears".However, where they were sitting it was apparent that they were guest of NC State and it was right near the scorer's table.
Hess may have overreacted, but you have to act like kind of an idiot to let it get to the point where you get thrown out.
