[CountTheBasket]

I won't attempt to explain every detail of this situation, as I'm not looking to get a specific answer about what happened to me. Just hoping to generate some discussion on some "game managment" and dealing with coaches when we're in that mode.

Monday night I'm working a GV game. Two teams I've had already, and I knew this was going to be a blowout from start to finish. Team B (visitior) has a head coach who is a whiner, begs for fouls, asks for "help" becasue of the score board, and generally doesn't seem to know a thing about coaching basketball. Reminds me of a rec league father who was "voluntold" he had to coach. Long story short, team A jumps out to something like a 20-2 lead, and B's coach starts with his usual routine of whining. It doesn't particularly bother me, but looking back I let him get away with too much. Add to that an empty quiet gym, and apparently to onlookers we let him get away with WAY too much. Winning Team A AD calls our comissioner and tells him we let the coach ride us the whole game etc. etc.

E-mail comes thru from the commish/assignor. We can't let this happen, why did it happen, the game was managed poorly etc. etc.

Last night, same scenario. GV blowout from the start, losing coach starts to get on me about a call he doesn't like. A few trips later I have a player control against his team. He's giving it to me the whole time I'm reporting then jumps up in the air and comes down and smacks the floor with both hands. With last night fresh in my mind I whack right there. At halftime my partners both have the same feelings: it was a charge, but close enough that I could've gone block with the scoreboard how it was. They don't necesarily disagree with the T, but with the score being the way it was I might have just been piling on and could've gone stern warning.

My long story leads me to this; How much should we/do we let the score and talent differential on the floor play into dealing with coaching behavior and the actual calling of the game. I'm finishing my second year as a varsity official, and I just constantly find myself leaving good competitive games happy and confident, while questioning myself leaving the "game managment" type of games. I assume this is just something that you develop a feel for with experience...?