Just watched the video and have not read the other comments yet*—*wanted to throw in my unsolicited feedback first
I don't know about the rest of the game or how it was officiated. The no call isn't the worst in the world ... yes, it is probably a foul, but it wasn't ridiculously awful and I can understand having a patient whistle here and passing on it.
SIX assistant coaches is beyond ridiculous. If this trend continues I can imagine the NFHS or state associations putting a rule in about it ... of course, the rules committees are generally run by coaches, so probably not.
Anyway, on to the technical foul... We don't see it, but I am assuming it was well deserved since there are at least a couple of others that *could* have been well deserved in the video that we DO see. The administration of the technical foul, however, was poor and the officials did several things that caused them more grief and trouble than necessary.
1) The best thing you can do after a technical foul is to shoot the shots and get the ball back in play as quickly as possible (without being so quick that you mess something up). Once the ball is back in play, the coaches will (most likely) go back to coaching. The entire time you are administering the technical foul shots they have nothing to do but say something to you, complain further, etc.
2) Since this technical will be administered at the beginning of the 4th quarter, we have an extended time period directly following it. That is out of our control. What is in our control, though, is where we spend that time —*which should be on the
opposite side of the court from the coaches. Do not go over there. Do not engage. Do not explain. Get away!!
3) The officials engage the head coach and many of the assistants —*there is no reason for this. Talk to the head coach. Let him know you will talk to him and ask him to have his assistants sit down. There is no reason to argue with any of the assistant coaches —*especially when there are 6 assistants!!! You are in a losing battle.
4) Demeanor goes a long way. If you are standing 3-4 feet from a coach it isn't necessary to make hand gestures*—*like wiggling your finger in the air in admonishment, or leaning towards the coach with a stop sign signal.
Also, if there is an issue with the assistant coaches standing you should tell the head coach and ask him to have his assistants sit down. Waving your finger/hand down and yelling "Sit down!" across the court is adversarial and unnecessary. If you ask the coach to have his assistants sit down, he will then turn and ask the assistants to sit —*the request is coming from the
coach not you, which makes a difference. You should see a better result —*and if you don't, you can assess a technical foul as necessary and the head coach has no excuse or complaint, since he was informed about it by you earlier.
Look at the demeanor of the officials in the screen caps below and ask yourself what message it communicates.
