[Back In The Saddle]

The situation we were discussing is a very specific case where the official closest to the violation, with a legitimate reason to be taking notice of the ball, provided a partner with some additional information that allowed him to get the call right. I find it interesting that some people have such difficulty separating what is an obvious and appropriate time to give your partner some additional information from the general case of a partner from hell gone fishing out of his area all night long.

An intelligent and well informed decicision to break with mechanics to get a call right need not be a threat to our normally rigorous adherance to the "stay in your primary" principle.

We can all tell tales of partners that went fishing in our pond and burned us. We can all recall times where we reached and were wrong. And we can all share examples of when we didn't reach to get something obvious and regretted it. I think it would be wrong to let such examples dissuade us from helping our partners out at appropriate times. Such times might include:

* An OOB call where you saw a tip, especially if it happened in your primary
* 2 v. 3 point shot when trail/center is straighlined and guessing
* A travel in front of the lead when he's busy looking for contact
* And yes, odd though it may seem, the free-throw violation in question

It's a simple matter to pre-game how to handle this as well. There is no need to put your partner on the spot. Simply go to him with a "did you see such-and-such" question, and let him change his call if he desires.

With the exception of the final example, I have had partners help out with each of these items and it has made the game better.

I've got a double header tonight where I'll be watching my primary, as always. And, as always, I'll be pregaming what I've been talking about. If my partner and I can agree to help each other out when appropriate, we'll have an even better game as a crew than we would as two individuals.