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Old Thu Feb 09, 2006, 09:26am
bgtg19 bgtg19 is offline
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Join Date: Nov 2004
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Crazy Voyager, I apologize for not reading your post a little more closely. I had a difficult time following what was happening; your descriptions were not particularly clear. I did get enough of the gist to say that I'm sorry you had a game like that: No fun.

I, too, had a "terrible, just awful display" last night from a coach. It wasn't as bad as your game. The awfulness simply was a coach's cluelessness. BV game. Two evenly matched teams. Great kids on both sides with great attitudes. Two really good point guards, both playing tenacious defense against each other. One of the PGs did like to "touch" his opponent while on defense, but my partners and I rarely deemed it a foul/hand check and the PG who was being touched never lost control of the ball or had his progress impeded because of being touched.

That description, of course, allows you to know already that the Team A coach decides to start saying loudly "hand check" each time down the floor. After a few times of hearing that, the ball went OOB right in front of the coach. Before I administer the throw in, I say to Coach A: "Coach, we're not going to listen to you yell all night. If you've got a question, ask it. Otherwise, that's enough." Coach A says. "That guy's riding my player the whole way up the floor and you won't call it." I say: "I'm sorry Coach, I don't hear a question." And then I administer the throw in.

Clock operator on several occasions either let's the clock run when it should have stopped or forgets to start it when it should be running. It didn't give either team any advantage - it was a close game - but of course it's Coach A who stands up to complain. They guy basically can't help himself. He seems to think that the fact that the clock stayed at 7:40 for about 5 seconds while his team dribbled the ball in the second quarter is part of a conspiracy to rob him, HIM!, of this game.

To make a long story just slightly less long, I'll get to the fourth quarter. Team A is behind by 4 points with just under one minute to play. Team A is trying to foul to stop the clock. As soon as Trail sees contact from A1, he blows the whistle. The contact was slight, but my partners and I had pregamed that we'd get fouls to stop the clock, if any, early so that the contact would not have to get more severe to get our attention. Trail reports the foul and is informed by the table that it is A1's fifth foul. Trail informs coach that A1 is disqualified, asks for a sub, and signals to the table to start the 30-seconds. Coach A decides to use the time to complain to official that our crew had not been calling that contact all night and now we foul out his player on a horrible call like that. As I'm standing there watching (from across the court as C getting ready for FTs), I'm thinking, "I think he's crossed the line here, we've got to get him with a T." Partner (an experienced official) is patient. One of the captains from Team A, who is lined up along the lane, shouts over to his bench, "Come on coach, let's go." Coach A still complaining. Partner finally says: "Coach, your 30-seconds is up, I need a sub." Coach A starts to say something and partner calmly signals for a T.

As we clear the lanes (yes, to shoot the 1 and 1 first, then the 2 for the T), A2 says to me, shaking his head: "You could see that coming."

Normally, I have less tolerance for a blow hard like Coach A, because complaining coaches often are accompanied by complaining players and complaining fans. This game was different. The kids were great. The fans were respectful. Virtually the only problem in the gym was Coach A. Since he wasn't "poisoning" the environment - he was just standing out in it and embarassing himself - we didn't feel the urge to T him earlier. I asked my partner after the game about why he didn't T the coach for his comments during the disqualification wait and he said: "I knew he wasn't going to give me a sub so I thought I'd give him the T for something concrete rather than for something that somebody who wasn't here could question." Interesting.
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