[BillyMac]

Warning to Mark Padgett: Do NOT read this post. It will make you sick.

I was watching two of my colleagues working a boys varsity prep school game yesterday, involving two players who are nominees for the MacDonald's All American team. Home team is a Connecticut prep school. Visiting team is prep school from Massachusetts.

Prep schools around these parts use an odd combination of rules, i.e. home team wears dark jerseys, and visitors wear white jerseys. Connecticut prep schools basically use NFHS rules with some NCAA influences, i.e. two halves (not four quarters), and shot clock. I believe that Massachusetts prep schools use a rule set that is leans a lot more toward NCAA rules (check with Scrapper1, or ChuckElias for details).

At one point in the first half of game, before either team was in the bonus, a player on the Massachusetts team commits a player control foul after the ball had been released on a shot that goes in the basket. This being a game played in the State of Connecticut, using mostly NFHS rules, the officials do not count the basket for the player control foul. The Massachusetts coach politely questions the officials as to why they disallowed the basket, and gets his NFHS versus NCAA explanation. It's only two points, right, and it's still early in the game, right, so it's not a big deal, right? Wrong. The game is tied by the Massachusetts team at the second half buzzer. It is tied by a buzzer beater by the Connecticut team at the end of the first overtime. It is tied at the end of the second overtime by a three point buzzer beater, and goes to a third overtime, with the Connecticut team winning by only one point after a three point field goal buzzer beater by the Massachusetts team. Too bad the kid wasn't fouled in the act or I might still be there today. If we had been using NCAA rules, I would have been home at lot earlier, in time for "Cops".