[M&M Guy]

I was witness to two screamers (both of my partners) during halftime of one of my juco games. It surprised the hell outta me, because one guy was one the nicest veterans I've ever met, and the other was a quiet, young guy.

It started in the first half, when the young guy was doing things like mirroring 3-point attempts as T or C when it was outside his area, and then made a questionable call in the vet's area. A little later on during a TO, I noticed the vet was talking to the young guy; had his arm around his shoulder and the coversation looked friendly enough. Later, right before the half, the young guy comes out and calls a travel way out in front of the vet at T. I could see the look on the vet's face, but nothing was done or said on the floor. However, once we got down to the locker room, the vet just lit into the young guy, asking WTF he was doing making that call, when we just talked about staying in our areas, and the young guy starts yelling back about how he had to make that call because it was obvious, etc. I just sat there with many thoughts going through my head: the vet's right - the young guy was making questionable calls outside his area, the young guy's right - the vet shouldn't be yelling at him questioning his calls, I'm glad I'm not in the middle of this, how the heck are we going to work the second half as a team, wonder where I'm going to stop for dinner after this game, and so on. It was one of the most uncomfortable halftime experiences I ever had. I finally mumbled something like, "Aw, come on guys, we've got a second half to get through...", We made it through the rest of the game, and post-game ok.

But on the way home, I realized no matter how much you might want to yell at your partner, there's probably a better way to handle it. I guess using people skills extends to your partners as well as coaches and players.