[Malcolm Tucker]

Originally posted by Mark Padgett

No, dude (that's an American saying), that's not what I meant. I thought that since you are upside down in your country, that when you toss the ball for a jump, it just keeps on falling toward the ceiling.

If that was the case we would be playing the game on the ceiling and tossing the ball towards the floor. I think we got gravity before you!

BTW - since the seasons are reversed from what they are here, during what months do you play?

Generally we play all year round with a break at Christmas for about 4 weeks.
We do not have basketball organised in the High Schools or Colleges as well as you do. Our serious ball is played in local Basketball Associations what I suspect you call Rec Ball but we treat it more seriously.

These local Associations attend various tournaments thru the year. The most important being State Titles. This post may get a little long but I will let you know what I have been up to this year. My main area is now referee education.

1. From October to April I educated and did some games in a regional competition in South East Queensland in a home and away series involving 10 to 15 associations in a radius of 100 klms from Brisbane.

2. At Easter I attended the State U16 Titles as an educator.

3. In June I attended U14 and U12 State Titles.

4. In August I attended the National Schools Championship between teams from each of our States and Territories.

5. In 10 days I will be the Referee Commissioner at the Champion School of Queensland Tournament.

Also - what is the time zone difference from where you are (and where, exactly, is that again?) to the Pacific time zone here in the land of Starbucks?

Pacific Time is 18 hours behind us here. I just finished watching the US Open about 45 Mins ago.
IE: 5pm Sunday your time is 11am Monday our time.

Do you have access to a map showing Australia. I am 80 Klms south of Brisbane on The Gold Coast a tourist destination and home of the Gold Coast Indy Car Race on in a few weeks.

Do you guys now wear v-neck jerseys like us and are they striped or solid color like our NBA refs?

We generally wear black and white stripes with a zip and collar.

Do you work mostly 2 or 3 man mechanics?

FIBA nows allows 3 man but it is only in our very senior competitions NBL & ABA

Thanks for the info. I'm always interested in hearing about how officiating is in other (non-Euro, of course) countries.

I do not think much of Europe from what I have read especially when there was little response when that Player that punched and kicked the referee in Russia (I Believe)basically got off. No respect for the safety of officials from the so called International Body as far as I can see.