Mens Rec - First Time

[jTheUmp]

Originally Posted by ChuckS

the biggest surprise was that it was NCAA rules! I had only done HS, and rec with local rules. My partner was also surprised at the NCAA rules. When I accepted the game, I asked the assignor to send me a link to the local rules. He said that I would find out at the game. If I had known it was NCAA, I could have looked up the differences between NFHS and NCAA ahead of time. (that chart in the NFHS book)

Don't worry about it too much... I'd say that 90-95% of things are the same as High school... I can only think of four things that would be different that people would probably know off the top of their heads:
1) restricted arc under the basket (which you probably didn't have on the court anyway)
2) three-point line being farther out (which probably wasn't marked that way anyway)
3) 30-second shot clock (which you probably didn't have)
4) game clock stops after a made basket under 1:00 in the second half (which may not matter if it's a running-time game, as most rec games are).

Had a similar situation a couple years back when I agreed to work a semi-pro football game... found out just after we arrived at the field that they were "using 100% unmodified NFL rules". As officials we took that to mean "ok, we need two feet inbounds for a catch, and the clock doesn't stop on a first down inbounds, but other than that, just call the game like you would anywhere else". Nobody noticed the difference.