[Back In The Saddle]

I had to do it last week in a boys freshman game. Fortunately it was a very easy game to call. Some of this has already been said,

• work FTL to FTL, kind of a cross between working T and C. You're going to have to work the arc agressively when the ball goes into the far corner.
• Work the side opposite the benches (you can see the table, subs, and you get the coaches out of your ear).
• Communicate, communicate, communicate. If everybody involved knows clearly what happened, and what will happen next at every whistle, it helps a lot.
• Involve your table crew. Let them know what to watch for on last-second shots and that you may come to them. If they know you want their help, they can be surprisingly helpful at other times. Because the only scoreboard was on the wall behind me, I missed that we'd gotten to the bonus in the 4th quarter. When I reported the seventh team foul the table not only informed me that we should be shooting, but who my shooter was.
• Administer free-throws from the T/C, like in the days of yore
• On throw-ins, get to where you need to be to see well, then bounce the ball to the thrower. Even if the throw-in is on the base line.
• Don't be afraid to bring the ball over to "your" side of the floor for a throw-in.
• Figure out how you're going to handle OOB calls on the far side. I had two in my game I couldn't see. The first one I asked the players who touched it last. The second I went with the jump ball. I'm not crazy about either option. (Nor am I crazy about having handled this inconsistently.) Next time I'll decide ahead of time how to handle it, and stick with it. But you may get some milage out of the old whistle, stop clock signal, pause, and watch to see which direction the players go.
• During pre-game warmups and halftime, I stayed at the halfline on the bench side of the floor so I could handle questions from the table and coaches (like "Should we wait a few more minutes for your partner?")
• Make intelligent trade-offs. Watch the ball, and try to watch one play ahead of the ball. But accept that you'll miss quite a bit.
• Pray for a sudden power outage