[Rich]

I mentioned here my matchup last night where the home team was 1-18 and had scored 7 and 6 points in recent losses.

First things first. It was 62-40. The home team is 1-19 and the visiting team is now 2-7 in conference (its only 2 wins against this team). It was, unfortunately, the worst varsity basketball game I've ever worked, too. The players tried their best, certainly, but their best was probably at a 6th to 7th grade level in some areas and possibly lower.

But it had its share of oddities. We called at least 6 double dribbles, 15 travels, and 2 backcourt violations. We had 2 backcourt endline throw-ins go out of bounds untouched. I had a 4-point play (the JV official came into the locker room at halftime and said that for a play that rarely happens I looked like I sure had the signaling down for that).

I also had a technical foul. A player knocked another player off balanced and I whistled a foul. After the whistle, the same player gave her opponent a 2-handed shove to the back. Ended up being a 6-point play and the player's fourth and fifth fouls.

Then there's the old man fan in the crowd of 100 or so that started screaming on every call that went against the home team. The one time the guy did it, he was so unintentionally funny that my partner and I looked at each other and cracked up before the first free throw. I thought I had gotten over the giggles when we made eye contact before the second free throw and we cracked up again. It got to the point, though, where both my partner and I finally looked at the AD in the corner and said, "you going to take care of that?" The AD sighed and asked me, "Quiet him down or get him out of here?" in a way that tells me this wasn't a first time occurrence. I said, "Just quiet him down" while thinking that if I had to be there for it so did he.