[Mark Padgett]

Juulie - as you know, you and I did the same tournament this weekend, although we didn't cross paths (maybe because Josh and I had all boys games). On Saturday, I had a coach who was so far out of the coaching box, literally he was across the mid-court line. Although we weren't really enforcing that rule this weekend, I did tell him to stay relatively in front of his bench. I warned him again a few minutes later. Just a few minutes after that, Josh gave him a third warning. A moment later, I heard Josh blow his whistle for the T. I thought it was because the coach didn't move back after that third warning, but I found out at halftime I was wrong. What the coach did, was "flip Josh off"!!!

When Josh told me that, I asked him why he didn't toss the guy. He grinned and said, "Two reasons. First, he's doing such a lousy coaching job he's hurting his team more by staying in - and second, I'd rather T him up again later. You know he'll do something stupid to get one, and that way the other team gets more free throws." I told him he absolutely, positively should have tossed the guy for that.

I think he was only half-kidding. BTW - I informed the coach after the T that he was seat-belted and guess what - he did get another T later from me for refusing to stay on the bench. Boy - that was fun.

Actually, I was impressed with the restraint my partner used during some of the games with players who used some mild profanity. Twice, players were mad at themselves and muttered something that, even though it was directed only at themselves, came out pretty loud. In both cases, Josh waited for a quarter break and then mentioned it to the coaches. He said he'd appreciated it if the coach would talk to the player to make sure it didn't happen again. I thought that was good game management.

Also BTW - who talked to you about what happened with that coach? We did five games and no one said anything to us, even though we did have a couple of problems with coaches.

We did have a kind of funny situation in our last game on Sunday. Team A was up 6 with less than two minutes to go. Coach B yelled for his team to foul and B1 ran up to A1 and just pushed him with one hand in the small of the back. I called the intentional and A1 made both free throws. A2 went to inbound and B2 reached over the line and slapped the ball. I called the technical, and A1 shot the free throws and made both. A2 went to inbound to A1 and as soon as he did, B3 wrapped both arms around A1. Another intentional and again, A1 made both free throws. Almost no time off the clock and team A adds 6 quick points and then gets the ball back and finally wins by 15. Just a strange ending to what actually had been a pretty close game.