Assistants chirping from bench

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I usually tell the HC "Your assistant is about to cost you the box." It lets everyone know I hear the comments and gives the HC a chance to take care of business. I always try to walk the fine line between working with a coach and putting up with too much.

Last night in a close varsity girls game (3 officials)...after the 3rd quarter the crew got together and agreed we needed to have more whistles. The game started getting a little chippy in the middle of the third and even without talking to each other we started calling it a little tighter. A little more than two minutes into the 4th we have a held ball (I am C, table side, tie-up was FT line extended at the arc on the opposite side). Trail hits his whistle quickly on the held ball but immediately heads down court. Just as he turns the player on the team trailing by 3 pulls hard as she pivots her hips and flings the other player a good 6 feet (she does not hit the floor). I immediately call an unsporting T.

After I report the T, her coach asks the usual "What did she do?" I explain and squash his comment that she didn't hear the whistle and tell him "Now, we're done". As the free throws are being shot he keeps expressing his displeasure so I say "Coach, your team is still in this. Do you really want to keep going on about that call?" I knew I had, in my mind, just warned him but gave him the benefit of the doubt that he may not have taken it as a warning. It helped that he had said maybe three things to any of us all game up to that point.

Should I have whacked him...probably. But the point was made and the game finished without incident...and his team lost by 5 after some late free throws were made.