[Raymond]

• In the past, the center official was taught to take a step up or down (optional) to get an angle on a drive to the hoop. Now they want one step up and one step in (on to the floor).

This had always been my natural reaction in the Slot but last year at an SEC-flavored camp I got hammered for stepping away from the play. So this past season I worked on only stepping in or down, but not up. I'm going to a couple ACC-influenced camps this month, it'll be interesting to see their philosophy on this

• Now they want the lead to "pinch the paint" (a new term to me) which means to take a couple steps backwards (more depth, like we used to do in two person) to help if the C can't get in position to see the entire play.

I hear this a lot when around the SEC guys but in reference to drives coming down the middle of the court. On drives coming from the Slot, SEC observers want to know why the Lead didn't rotate in time

• When transitioning to lead, they now want the lead official to do directly to close-down (they used to tell us to go to wide-angle first). They want the lead busting their butt to get to the close-down spot by the time the ball crosses halfcourt.

Definitely something you have to do when working in front of those SEC-types. Last year I even heard the Big 12 Women's Supervisor say to come across right away, not even to wait for the trail to make it to half court. But I know not everyone is a big fan of that philosophy.

• A 3-person crew should never have to go to the AP arrow on an out-of-bounds situation. If an official needs and his first partner doesn't know who hit it, the second official darn well better have a direction.

Two of my good friends & mentors who are D1 officials both espouse this philosophy

I'm doing my only 2 out-of-town camps back-to-back over the next 10 days then I get to relax for the summer.