Well, I had one of “those gyms” last night. A small Private School that’s been there 20 yrs. Unbelievably small! ("How small was it?" Ed McMahon)
The end lines were two feet from the wall (which had some minor padding). The backboards were even with the end line. In captain’s/coaches meetings we discussed that unless you or the ball were touching the wall during a live ball, play on! On an end line throwin – don’t worry about stepping over the line in a minor way. Certainly had to give three feet. I inbounded the ball once on the end line and stepped to the side to get a wider angle and almost went down as I bumped right up against the seats.
As we’ve discussed on the Forum before, this gym had a lot of bizarre issues. The seats were like an amphitheater - rounded, rows of rising bench seats only on one side of the gym, that were solid with edges and close to the floor. All over the gym there were light switches, boxes, fire alarms that were covered in “hard cages” so as not to be damaged if someone ran into them …….but, if a player hit em? Wow?
Jump ball goes up for JV game. Hit toward out of bounds. Blue chases after it and makes a great save throwing the ball over his head with both hands. WHAM! He runs right into a set of wall lockers located adjacent to the floor and against the wall. Me
Gonna be one of those nights.
Later in the JV game W12 is leading the fast break and B5 is chasing. B5 goes up to block the shot and WHAM! Both players hit the wall and go crashing to the ground in a heap. W12 is in pain. I saw him roll his ankle. He’s out for the game.
The clock was on the opposite side of the gym from the seats on top of the wall lockers and the operator ran it with a fob from across the gym (I'd never seen that before). Four seconds left before a quarter ended, coach requests a time out. Me, TWEET! Time Out B Coach. Clock went to 2 secs. Me, "I need you to put 4 secs on the clock." Clock operator, "Sure thing." He walks across the floor, takes the clock off the wall lockers, adds 2 secs and returns to his spot on the ampitheater seats.
And so, my night went……..
Unfortunately, the level of play matched the quality of the facilty. JV game was won by V 32-25. H took the Varsity game 30-19.
Truly a Get in, Get done, Get out evening. Move on. Nothing to see here…….
I’m sending a note to my Association. That gym should be banned.