Quote:
Originally posted by ChuckElias
I'm probably going to take some flak for this, but put me in the camp of "If he's coaching, I'm not going to notice whether he's in the box or not." Notice that I didn't say "I don't care" if he's in the box. I just don't notice. I have too many other things to worry about to keep track of whether he's in the box or 5 feet out of it.
And I just disagree with those who says "It's a huge advantage to be out of the box". It might be a little advantage, but unless you're on the other side of midcourt, it's really not an advantage.
If the coach comes out on the floor, or if the coach is at midcourt (or past), or if the coach is on the endline -- then get him back in the box. "Call the obvious". Otherwise, leave it alone. It's just not that big a deal. All these state proclamations year after year just seem really silly to me.
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I used to feel the same way, mainly because all the "veteran refs" when I started used to give me the old "if they aren't yelling at me, I don't care where they are" speech in pregame. Then I went to a state tournament for the very first time and didn't notice a coach who was wandering about 5 feet out of his box. The coaching box has huge emphasis in the state of Washington and all the state observers docked me for letting the coach wander a bit.
Ever since then, I make sure I'm just as aware of where the coaches are as I am of things like the clock, the shot clock etc. If a coach steps out of the box by even 3 feet, I just give him a smile and a subtle wave back in to the box. They just smile, look down and take three steps back into the box. I have done well at state tournaments ever since and always get positive comments about coaching box awareness from the observers. I have also noticed that coaches behave better overall when the box is managed. Monitoring the box is not really any extra work since we all look at the bench area on every dead ball for subs anyway.
It starts in the pregame coaches conference. If you mention the coaching box then, they immediately know that you will be monitoring it and they won't generally challenge you on it during the game.
It really helps keep coaches under control and that also affects the bench players and the fans too. When the coach knows he/she is monitored, it really does make them much better behaved and helps the overall sportsmanship of the entire gym. A wandering coach seems to get the players and fans more irritated and a coach staying within his/her confines seems to have a calming effect instead.
If you monitor the box subtly (knowing looks, smiles, subtle arm motions to move back in), you will very rarely need to give a technical foul. You can keep it from getting to that point 99% of the time.
Z