5 seconds closely guarded

[ilyazhito]

Originally Posted by Rich

The longer I officiate the more I realize the best officiated games happen when each of the three officials worries about their own crap and doesn't try to officiate for his/her partners.

+1. The official in the OP who told his partner not to call closely guarded was incorrect. He was probably working outside his PCA. At higher levels (and I assume that playoff basketball is considered a higher level) supervisors want officials to make obvious calls in one's PCA, and only go out of the PCA (not including overlapping areas of coverage) for obvious safety fouls. That said, any call outside the PCA needs to be right, late, and needed, which a closely-guarded count (or lack thereof) from a non-primary official is not.

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by ilyazhito

+1. The official in the OP who told his partner not to call closely guarded was incorrect. He was probably working outside his PCA. At higher levels (and I assume that playoff basketball is considered a higher level) supervisors want officials to make obvious calls in one's PCA, and only go out of the PCA (not including overlapping areas of coverage) for obvious safety fouls. That said, any call outside the PCA needs to be right, late, and needed, which a closely-guarded count (or lack thereof) from a non-primary official is not.

Ya think?!!!

Peace

[ilyazhito]

Not the OP, but the official who told the OP not to call closely guarded.

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by ilyazhito

Not the OP, but the official who told the OP not to call closely guarded.

I clearly was not talking about the OPer.

Peace

[BryanV21]

Someone touched on this already, but in those type of late game situations chances are there are players in the game that don't get a lot of time on the court. Don't do them injustice by not calling the game correctly.

If those were the only 3.5 minutes you got to play in that game would you want somebody basically telling you "this part of the game doesn't matter, so I'm going to mail it in just to make it go by quicker"?

[ilyazhito]

I agree. That is why the philosophy of not calling stuff in a blowout makes no sense, especially when the call is obvious, like a 5-second count. Maybe the bench warmer was the one playing good defense to force the closely guarded violation, and (s)he needs rewarded for that good play.

[SNIPERBBB]

Thread necromancy also makes no sense.

[Rich]

Originally Posted by ilyazhito

I agree. That is why the philosophy of not calling stuff in a blowout makes no sense, especially when the call is obvious, like a 5-second count. Maybe the bench warmer was the one playing good defense to force the closely guarded violation, and (s)he needs rewarded for that good play.

There's a middle ground here, of course. I might pass on a travel I would've called earlier because the players in the game just aren't that skilled. Especially at smaller schools, there's a big drop off between the starters and the end of the bench.

Closely guarded? Yeah, I might wait an extra beat or two to start my count. Then again, I'm not very aggressive in starting that count in the first place, mainly cause I don't want to have a lot of 1 counts.

As for Bob's comments -- yes, that's right. Don't bump old threads -- if there's something there you want to talk about, quote it in a new thread.