[Rich]

Just an example to remind me how hard inexperienced officials have it and also how important it is to have a good foundation in the rules.

JV game. Home team down 2 points. Shot goes up, covering official marks it as a 3-point attempt, successful at the horn. Everyone except the visiting team happy, right?

Until the other official comes out and insists that there was a foot on the line. The officials talk and they decide to count the bucket as a 2.

Tie game. Overtime, right?

Then the home coach goes nuts and gets himself whacked.

Then it all falls apart. Neither official knows for certain how to administer this situation. One official runs off the court to find a book and/or the varsity officials (who are getting ready) to help.

Somehow, they still get it wrong. They shoot FTs, the team hits one, and they call the game.

By the end of this, I was wincing. The lesson here? I frequently joke that you really don't need to know a lot of rules compared with other sports I work (football, baseball), but that's not really true. It's just that once an official gets a good foundation in the rules that it isn't really hard to keep up since rules rarely change (in such a way to make things really difficult for us).

I also heard last night that a JV Boys coach got ejected last week and I've personally had two head coach technicals (one from me, one from a partner) in the last two games. The season's heating up it seems.