[BillyMac]

For the first time, ever, my local board is assigning AAU games. For almost thirty years I have avoided such games, but as a empty nester, with some time on my hands, I decided to give it a shot for a few reasons: get in some running, stay on top of my game, see some of my buddies that I don't normally see in the off season, and make a few bucks. I'm not completely ignorant in terms of what goes on in an AAU tournament because my daughter played AAU ball for several years, and I, as a good dad, followed her team as a fan.

Bad news, as I expected: There were three games going on in the same fieldhouse. Lots of noise. Lots of whistles. Table, and benches, on one endline. Coaches allowed to coach from the sideline, the "whole" sideline. Games (sixteen minute halves, three minute halftime, three sixties, and two thirties, for timeouts, bonus on the seventh foul, double bonus on tenth foul) "scheduled" every seventy minutes. By the time my partner and I got to our assigned court for our two early afternoon games, our court was already almost forty-five minutes behind. To speed things up my partner and I decided to switch "when convenient". No real reporting area with "long distance signals" given to the table. Certainly not perfect conditions to stay on top of my mechanics. Hot gym, in the mid-eighties.

Good news, in some cases pleasant surprises: Really good basketball. One blowout game in which the kids never gave up, but played as hard as they could for the whole game. Table missed telling us, until it was too late to correct, about a bonus free throw, but otherwise did a great job of keeping time, score, fouls, and timeouts, as well as doing a pretty good job of keeping substitutes back until we beckoned them in. Coaches didn't complain about any calls, just asked a few polite questions. Parents were no more vocal than a high school game.

Overall a pretty good experience. I got in a good run. Got to make some tough calls. Made a nice double foul call to calm down two post players who decided to get into a shoving match to gain position. Saw some of my buddies that I usually only see in the winter (Boy, some of them have real ugly legs, I can't wait until the winter for some of them to start wearing long pants again). Walked out with $70.00 cash in my pocket for a few hours work. I guess that I'll be signing up for more "AAU follies".

One really interesting call. Kid makes a steal at the division line and goes in for the dunk. I guess that something distracted him because he missed the dunk. He hung onto the rim and tried, unsuccessfully, to redirect the ball into the basket. I called the technical foul. No complaints from anybody. After the game I asked the player if he knew why I called the technical foul. He replied because he hung on the rim. I told him that that really wasn't the reason. If he had just hung on the rim for a split second to allow himself to gently drop back to the court, I would have let it go, but he stayed up on the rim a little too long, thus the technical foul. He thanked me and told me that he wouldn't do that again. Nice, polite kid. Must have a good coach, and/or good parents.