[Back In The Saddle]

Originally posted by Jurassic Referee

Good post, Coach. I agree with you completely. Advantage/disadvantage is being taken to extemes by some officials who don't really have an idea of what the concept should be. They're using it as a cop-out for not making a proper call. For the guys that say that they're not gonna call a palm or a quick double dribble in the backcourt when there's no pressure, all I can say is I wanna be there when this happens in the last minute of a 1-point game with a crowd of a coupla thousand, and you ignore it. Have fun!

Hmmm, I'm gonna disagree with you...to a degree. By your arguments, you want every three seconds violation called, even if the offender is barely touching the lane line with the edge of one shoe and not involved in the play. You want traveling called every time a dribbler lifts his/her pivot foot just a fraction of a second before beginning the dribble. You want every jump stop called, because no player can truly put both feet down simultaneously. We routinely apply advantage/disadvantage to violations. We routinely call things "close enough" Now the question is, where do we draw the line. But I think we're kidding ourselves if we think we draw it at NOT using advantage/disadvantage for violations.

As for the last minute of a 1-point game...if a referee is going to let a mere 2000 fans intimidate him/her into making a call he/she doesn't want to make, perhaps there are other hobbies that person ought to consider.

[Edited by Back In The Saddle on Jan 13th, 2004 at 10:54 AM]