[w_sohl]

Originally posted by Hawks Coach
Witnessed a bigger screw-up two days ago. Teams are aligned wrong for overtime jump ball. I was just an observer, but I noticed it right away and told the people sitting around me. There was a red violation on the jump, and the refs and some of the players on white understood that the teams were going the wrong way. Three white players are lined up at the true offensive end of the court, red has two players at each end and one in the middle, and everyone appears confused.

Instead of the refs clarifying, they hand the ball to the inbounder, she inbounded to a point guard in backcourt, and she comes to the front court (while the inbounder screams at her thinking it is a backcourt violation - she didn't even know what way they were going). While red tries to sort out what was going on, white passes to the block and gets the quick score. Red coach was understandably POd, red team gets distracted and loses ball, white team hits a three, and the rout is on.

Refs needed to get the teams set right before the re-start.

I completely disagree! It is the players job to know which way they are going just as much as it is ours. It is not our responsibility to tell the players they are going the wrong way. Look at it this way, and this is a true story. Coach runs a play where his player line up under the wrong basket for an inbound in an attempt to confuse the other team and catch a break when one of the players breaks for the correct basket. Now if you are going to tell teh players that they are going the wrong way you are going to completely take away any advantage that that team had. The coaches and players need to know just as much as we do.