[Back In The Saddle]

AAU BV game this week, 2 man crew. Throw-in near the division line in front court. Throwing team sets up in a stack, four deep. During the throw-in a defender tries to go around the top of stack (the end away from the sideline) and, according to the coach, gets and elbow to the face while going around a screen. The kid goes down.

My question is, how do you referee a stack like this. One official can't realistically watch 4 matchups at once. Then again, neither can two each watch 4 matchups. Somehow you'd have to divide and conquer. But in this experience, the contact occurred on the far side of the stack from my partner, and while I was behind the kid that got hit and was completely straightlined. Not to mention my attention was already on some shenanigans going on in the stack.

I feel bad that the kid got hit. But neither of us saw it happen, nor do I think we could reasonably have been expected to (although that sounds like a cop out). But if there's a better way to handle this situation, I'd like to know.