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Originally Posted by Dan_ref
Had a couple of AAU games this weekend, including a 15u championship. I mention this because 2 players of the winning team looked closer to 25 than 15. But there it is.
Play1: A1 dribbling downcourt. The ball bounces about 3 feet over his head, he regains control and continues on. Parents have a stroke TRAVEL! TRAVEL!! BLOW THE WHISTLE!!
Stupid monkeys.
Play 2: A1 shoots from 10 feet out, the ball's in the air and there's a loud slap. Gawd knows who or what was slapped but it wasn't the shooter. Parents (other team btw) can not believe their own ears. HOW CAN YOU MISS THAT! BLOW THE WHISTLE!! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!!!?
Oh well, they both hate us. Stupid monkeys.
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If you're going to work this kind of ball. You're going to have to step it up as an official. AAU ball is where we separate the boy's from the men, the real officials from the fake officials. Officials that say they don't work this ball is because they can't handle it. It's too hot in the kitchen for them. Now, I'm going to tell you what you need to do here but b4 I do that, let me say a few words about AAU ball.
AAU ball is some of the best ball out here. Parents who have the money or the desire to see there kid play the best talent get into AAU. You can best believe that these teams are not going to get on an airplane and travel to other states to play unless they got the best group of players they can assemble. The next thing is kids who are not academically inclined, in other words they would not make the HS team but are still gifted athletically play AAU ball. AAU or traveling bb is heavily controlled by the parents who are your fans and coaches. I watched a 12U boys game yesterday that was awesome. I'm talking 6 grade ball here, one kid could dribble the pill better than the And1 games you see on ESPN, then dish it to his player underneath the basket for a layup, that's fantastic(!!) to see at that age level and imagine if you are ref'ing it. Not all of the games are like this but if you stick around long enough you will eventually get some good games to work.
Okay, ref'ing an AAU game. The stuff you do for high school games is not enough at this level. You got to step it up a notch. The part where they say don't talk to the fans, throw that out. The first thing you have to do in my opinion is to get control of your gym. They don't pay you enough to listen to this crap. If the fans are way way out of line, you stop the game and you tell the fans you need to hold it down a little bit. If you can't do that, I'm going to have to ask you to leave. Be polite. More often than not, this will bring people back into prospective. I'm not going to go any further then this because if they don't do what you tell them to do, you know what's next. Another thing that I do that really helps me is when I have a questionable play like the high dribble and everybody's screaming for CARRY or travel, I'll communicate my no-call to them by saying NO and shaking my head. The fans and even the coaches see that I have a ruling on the play. More often than not, they're okay with that. What fuels the fire is when you don't see it. But if you see it and acknowledge it, they immediately let it go. Try that once or twice and tell me if it doesn't help. I do this in my HS games and once the coach sees I had a ruling on the play, they let it go. If you go the HS route and not say anything to the fans, you're making it worse and they get even madder and depending on how pissed off they get. They may wait for you outside. Me, I have to have complete control of my gym and I'm taking this control. I also work harder than most officials, even at these games. When the fans see that, I get a lot of lee-way and they tend to do what I ask them to do.