[ranjo]

I have had a really good AAU season so far - Quality games, quality teams, and coaches who have pretty much left me alone.

Some of that changed during one game this Saturday afternoon and I would like to expand on some of the things that happened.

Both coaches are working us, but in a controlled manner, like questioning out of bounds calls, who the proper shooter was, amount of time put on the clock after a malfunction, and which official may have had a better angle on a particular call. Coaches like that really keep you on your toes in a good way.

The first incident occured when I let some contact go that resulted in a steal. I blew the whistle a little late and the coach was somewhat irate about the late call. He said if there was a foul, I should have blown the whistle as soon as it happened and not when he had a chance at a break away goal. He calmed down when I explained I let the contact go as there was no advantage gained by the contact until the steal occured.

The next thing happened after a foul on a post player - The player walked to the line to shoot two awarded free throws, then grabed his knee and went to the floor. The coach was beckened, came onto the floor, and told his players to help their teamate to the bench. A substitute entered and took the free throws.

I feel the player faked the injury to get a high percentage free throw shooter to take his shots.( It was a one point game at the time) When I talked to my partner about it after the game I told him that since I did not have any history of that particular player or coach doing it before, I was compelled to ere on the side of caution.

Anybody had this happen to them before?

Third incident happened during an overtime period. 1.2 seconds showing on the clock, home team down two points with a throw in from the visitors end line.

Home team inbounds the ball which hits a defender and bounces out of bounds on the sideline. I look at the clock and it still shows 1.2 seconds. The attempted inbound has happened so quickly, I haven't even chopped in the time.

Visiting team coach insists there should be some time taken off the clock. I explain that with a manual timing system there will be some lag in getting the clock started, and that I could not accurately say how many tenths of a second have expired on the throw in.

We keep the 1.2 seconds, the ball is thrown in, a shot taken and missed, visitors win by two.

Would anybody have done it any differently?