Last year I had a fight in one of the first games of the season. Some kid decided to wait about a quarter and a half into his high school basketball career before he threw a punch. Hopefully he learned his lesson.

I remember setting a goal for myself last year to have zero technical fouls on coaches. It was a goal mainly to make myself be a better communicator and continue to learn how to talk with coaches to calm them down, etc.

I made it to February before I had a T on a coach. The guy definitely earned it though so I couldn't be that mad about not hitting my goal. This year I don't know that I'll set a goal for a number...I think I'll continue to work on communicating with the coaches.

In a sense, coach technical fouls should almost call themselves. We let them toe the line and, again in a sense, it should be fairly obvious when they cross that line and earn themselves the tech.

Pretty standard fair for the most part:

Team is out matched and as game goes on egos get bruised. Game gets chippy/ kids chirp and/ losing-winning coach complains about the way the game is being called and its impact on the outcome etc.

A couple of more colourful examples though.

*Double header at a private school. Boys game is going to be huge one. Girls game prior is ugly. V is up 30 early in the 2nd quarter. V coach empties the bench and game becomes much more even. V16 is probably more a manager than a player but is getting big minutes. Rowdy H student section led by what appears to be the hockey/football team getting ready for boys game notices before she shoots free throws that she adjusts straps on fitted Durant style shoes. Everytime she catches the ball the section starts yelling your shoes are untied. Continues in the 2nd half kid is clearly rattled and eventually coach takes her out. Group containing some starters comes in and goes on a quick 8-0 run to push lead to 45+. Girl who hits three turns to H student section leader and says "How about you stop yelling sh%& at my teammate, and I'll tell your gf to keep pretending to yell about your d$%(?"


*2A league game. Home team overmatching the Vistors by about 25+ late in the 3rd Home defense is keeping V frustrated. H coach seems hot about something and is talking to my partner post timeout. We resume play a couple of trips later there is collision between offensive V and defending home player. Bang Bang both players go down hard. My partner comes up with a block. A clipboard hits the floor hard on the H side. I approach the H bench with the Head Coach picking up the clipboard and sitting down. I inform him that he has to keep bench and himself under control. He responds: " I will take care of them if you do something about him. He hasn't called a charge since we got up 15 its been all blocks or no calls. When I talked to him about it he said I can't expect to get that many of those calls. I will take care of my bench if you can stop him from cheating my kids."

So T's on either of these or nothing?

Definitely T's on both. We ended up tossing the girl when she argued the T.

Do you think you should have just whacked him when he threw the clipboard and not given him a chance to show his ass further?

Were they bad block/charge calls? If I didn't T him up for the clipboard there's absolutely no way I'm Ting him up for what he said. Just diffuse it.


I wouldn't even want to T the girl in the first place(not that I wouldn't), let alone toss her for not liking the T. Did she punch you? Lol


I don't predict my T count for the year. About the only thing I do is try to never have a situation where I have to give a T. If someone really wants one.... then I'll oblige. It's so much easier to just shut coaches/players up early instead of letting them boil.

Like most things I would rather call what I see happen rather than what I think happened.

Did he most likely fire his clipboard to the ground ticked off? Probably. I didn't see it though and to just hear noise and see the after math isn't enough for me to T. If I toss a T and find out some manager kicked over the equipment pile I'm in a real mess.

The approach and warning generically covers the situation so that if its nothing we can just move on, if its something it will now be something.

At the point he says cheating that basically becomes automatic in our part of Rome!

Not defending the coach at all, but my partner that night is a bit of a cowboy and does and says some stuff thats not my style but seems to work for him. All of the calls he had were stuff where you had to have something. Most not in my primary, I know that I called a couple of charges and there were also a lot of no calls on stuff I was responsible for. Again the defense was tough on on just about every drive try there was a body contact between the driver and help defense.

The one he called that caused the clipboard to fly I was more likely to no call. Dribbler picked up the ball at the point of contact and reverse pivoted to pass. No one was getting cheated.

After game partner said he told him that "you can't get every call, even in a game like this".


In terms of the girl. I asked my partner to pay a little more attention to the student section and if it ever crossed a line we could get game management involved. I T'd her up and she stormed off. My partner T'd her on the walk away apparently said "Who's he . .. his fu%^ing dad?"

Is this a serious question Todd? You have been working long enough to know that this is unacceptable...in both cases (although I think you get the coach for throwing the clipboard).

Make sense, thanks.

I doubt his reason for asking is because he doesn't know what he'd do in either situation.

I know Big T personally and I asked my question because I know that he should know better without asking...