[Nevadaref]

Originally posted by Rick82358

...A message needed to be sent through a technical foul - or a few quickly called fouls on the press, before the game busted out into a travesty or a brawl.

If you are talking about the situation in the original post, it is already too late for that. You've just had one team purposely give the ball to the opponents and allow them to score three times. The game is already a travesty.

Originally posted by Rick82358
We send messages through every call that we make - basically they all say do not do that.

While I tend to think that all calls by officials are responses to the actions of the participants, I generally agree with this statement.

Originally posted by Rick82358
When the team would steal the ball they we driving to the basket and making passes off the backboard and behind the back to trailers even with no defender around - and doing some celabrating also.

So what did you do about this showboating? I'd say that you missed a golden opportunity to "send a message" by calling a technical foul for taunting. A team technical would have been just fine with me.

Originally posted by Rick82358
So I was the trail, on the next inbound we got three quick fouls on their press before the ball got across mid court

So instead of punishing the true unsporting behavior, you nit-picked three fouls on kids for playing full-court pressure defense? I have to side with JR here. I don't think that is fair. Did this team really commit three legitimate fouls on one possession after only committing one foul previously in the half? Be careful here, it sounds like you and your partner might be calling stuff that isn't there. If you are truly concerned about the behavior of the winning team, there was a much better way to handle this; call the unsporting T mentioned above.

We have a local team that presses the whole game. The coach will put in the end of his bench quite early, but those kids still have to work hard and press full-court. I know that this coach would be very upset with you and your partner, if you tried to get his third string to move back to halfcourt.

Originally posted by Rick82358
...the possibility of having other problems stopped too.

...IMO I think of that as game managment.

...Nothing I did with those three foul calls would effect the outcome of the game - but it did accomplish the goal - It got them to stop and prevented further problems.
JMO.

I'm going to put all three of these clips together because they testify to your way of thinking in handling these situations.

1. The "other problems" would have stopped or not arisen had you addressed that behavior with a T or even a harsh word.

2. Game management is not calling fouls on only one team in order to get them to change their defense. It is having the judgment and the courage to take care of problem or potential problem situations as the arise.

I would be more impressed with an official who could deal with a team pressing the whole game with a big lead and manage that without problems. Talk to the players. Calm them down. Watch for things that are unsporting and would anger a kid. Simply stealing the ball or scoring does not qualify.

3. True, but it is not all about the final score. There are other lessons to be learned through athletics. It really does seem like you punished fair and aggressive play by some kids. Why was it your goal to get this team to stop pressing or to get them to not foul while continuing to press full-court? It seems that you were trying for the former. In my opinion, you should have been focused on putting a stop to the teasing and poor behavior. Whether the team steals the ball in the frontcourt or the backcourt, they can still show-off against a lesser opponent.

I'm not trying to harp on you because I know that quite a few officials think in the same manner that you have expressed. I'm just trying to get you to realize that your actions drastically effected the manner in which the game was played. Not the tone or sporting spirit, but the actual defense used. I think that you overstepped your bounds as an official an imposed yourself on the game.
I hope that you might reflect upon this. Whether you decide that anything I wrote here is worthwhile is up to you.