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Tourney in CT last weekend:
New partner, never met her before. 1 minute into the game, I'm the trail, a shot bounces on the top of the backboard, falls back into play and my partner (lead on the endline underneath the basket) whistles out of bounds. Ughhh, long day ahead: PCA -- fail; Rules -- fail. At the first timeout, I say, "On that shot a minute or so ago, looked to me like it just bounced on the top of the backboard. What'd you see there?"
"Oh, well I'm from Massachusetts," (so am I) "and up there, top of the backboard is out of bounds." I tried to explain the rule but she just said, "We can do it your way." So we did it "my" way for that game, but be forewarned: she's out there and was unswayed by my attempts at polite reform.
So it's not just the fans, coaches and players, fellas. The horror show is across the board.
Same tourney, different game. A1, inbounding on the endline, passes to a teammate across the free-throw lane, the ball hitting the net as it enters the court. Team B coach asks, "Isn't the net out of bounds?" Just when you think you've heard it all, you discover there's a whole other level of thought you never knew was possible.
I went the sarcasm route -- never advisable -- and said, "That'd make scoring pretty tough, wouldn't it?" and luckily that was the proper tack with this coach, who laughed and gave an "Oh ... right" look.
AAU is like an outlaw society.
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