Quote:
Originally posted by Back In The Saddle
JV boys, smaller school. Home team completely overmatched. Off and on through the whole game the home coach, who I have had a pretty good relationship with this season, is talking to me about V team fouls that we're missing. At the half my partner and I talk, plan to adjust our mechanics some to try and see this stuff. I even went and talked to the coach at the end of halftime and asked him to tell me exactly what I'm missing. We're really trying to find this phantom stuff. Frankly, mostly what we see is the home team doing stupid stuff, grabbing jerseys, shoving, etc.
With a few mins left in the game, V is up by 30-40. But H is still doing stupid stuff. In the last two minutes I've got a blatant push during a free throw and a dead-ball two handed shove, both by the H team. The coach wants to know why I'm calling stuff on his guys. My answer: "Coach, your guys are frustrated and I'm trying to keep this from coming to blows." Oh, and we fouled out three of his six players.
I absolutely hated how this game ended. I try hard to be aware of game situation and not go rubbing salt in wounds in already decided, lopsided games. But I felt like I had no choice but to keep calling the fouls against H. There has got to be a better way to handle this situation, but what is it?
I guess there are really two questions here: How do I handle the coach, and how do I handle the players?
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Never say, "Coach tell me what we are missing," you are setting yourself up for more trouble.
If you think you are missing something just ask the coach what they saw...the whole who, what, where and how...of the play, and then say, "Coach we'll watch for it."
With that many fouls you are obviously shooting free throws, so why not talk to the players? A few, "Let's clean it up, " or "Too much hands, let's play some good defense."
I was doing some youth games on Saturday, the teams were mismatched and the point guard on the losing team was getting schooled by the PG from the other team.
The bumping and grabbing started and it was clear that the kid was frustrated. His coach called a time out, and at the end of it I quietly and calmly told the player, "I need you to settle down for me, I know you're frustrated, but you need to clean it up and play ball." I then told the coach exactly what I told the player. The game went on without another problem.
In your case the bigger issue was the coach trying to redirect his player's play into the opponents foul total. If you have a pretty good relationship, and even if you don't, I'd say, "Coach we have not called ANYTHING boarderline on your players, these are OBVIOUS fouls your players are MAKING us call."