“You get those butterflies and what I’ve done every time is I just stand there and I look around and I say, man, I made it here,” said college basketball referee Jeff Anderson.

You talk about streaks in sports — Rochester native Jeff Anderson has built his own. This weekend will mark his seventh straight Final Four.

“Once I started I didn’t want to do anything else. I just wanted to referee. But I never thought I would get to where I am,” said Anderson.

Anderson will ref the National Championship Game on Monday. A whole football stadium of eyes and viewers across the country will be glued on UConn, Alabama, Purdue, and NC State. They’ll also pay close attention to the zebras.

“There’s a thing called human error and it exists in the game and there’s no way at any point in time that it will not happen to one of us as an official,” said Anderson.

There’s a reason why Anderson keeps getting asked to come back. Like the Final Four teams have unique game plans, he has a plan of how the game should be called.

“If you can start the game strong and you can finish the game strong, then we can win the game. When you start putting bad fouls on players early in the game, and if you have something bad late in the game, that’s all they remember,” said Anderson.

That also rings true for Anderson. Once the game gets going, it’s just one more game — but he always makes sure to take in that National Championship Game feel.

“Once I hit the court, I’ll just look around and tell God ‘thank you for me being here’ and I just go do my thing after that. I will have some fun and I will do some smiling,” said Anderson.

He might get an earful from the coaches, but this is why Anderson has worked for.