Big Baller Forfeits

[so cal lurker]

Originally Posted by ODog

The eternal cry, "Come on, man, this is AAU" roughly translates to: "Can you pleeease just let us get away with things we would not ever get away with for even one second if we were actual coaches of real teams or players participating in high school/college games!"

So, for those of you who do those club tournaments that aren't associated with a referee camp, do you call the games differently? My perception as a parent having sat through many of them is that referees have a much higher foul threshold in those tournaments than in HS games. Perhaps because they are jamming a game into 70 minutes and it won't happen if they actually call the fouls that happen?

(I'm lucky that my son plays for a club that is more focused on teaching the kids than yelling at the refs (or yelling at the kids), but -- wow -- do I find myself seeing many other teams thinking, "no way would I let my kid play for a coach like that!")

[Nevadaref]

Originally Posted by so cal lurker

So, for those of you who do those club tournaments that aren't associated with a referee camp, do you call the games differently? My perception as a parent having sat through many of them is that referees have a much higher foul threshold in those tournaments than in HS games. Perhaps because they are jamming a game into 70 minutes and it won't happen if they actually call the fouls that happen?

Excellent observation.
If a tournament is going to have stop-clock games in a tight schedule and pay the refs roughly half of what the HS regular season fee is, then don't be surprised if the officials do about half of the work, or even as little as possible. Fewer whistles means games finish more quickly and as the officials are paid by the game, not the hour, they don't want to be out there any longer than they must.

You may now ask why doesn't that happen during regular HS games. The answer is that it does. It is only controlled by the amount of oversight directed to the officials. Normal HS generally has more observers, ADs, assignors, etc. than Summer AAU tournaments. This is one reason the high-profile Summer events like having the referee camps provide officials--oversight and observation of the officials. If they are being evaluated for future work, they won't slack off and a decent product results. I suspect the other reason is that the overall expense to the tournament organizers for the camp administrators/observers is cheaper than just paying the officials outright, plus it creates a layer of accountability. Now people of being paid to look at the quality of the officials working the games instead of just working the games. How do they afford that? Not only are the refs not being paid, but they are actually paying for this oversight!

[SC Official]

Originally Posted by Nevadaref

If they are being evaluated for future work, they won't slack off and a decent product results. I suspect the other reason is that the overall expense to the tournament organizers for the camp administrators/observers is cheaper than just paying the officials outright, plus it creates a layer of accountability. Now people of being paid to look at the quality of the officials working the games instead of just working the games. How do they afford that? Not only are the refs not being paid, but they are actually paying for this oversight!

This is easily the most important reason. e.g. An organizer could pay a 2-man crew $25 apiece per game or pay a camp director $50 per game to staff however many courts with 3-man crews. Now they get more bang for their buck–accountability for the officials and 3-man crews–for the same price as paying the officials.

[ODog]

Originally Posted by so cal lurker

So, for those of you who do those club tournaments that aren't associated with a referee camp, do you call the games differently?

Absolutely. But not just for the reasons Nevadaref laid out regarding unreasonable game windows and paltry pay.

The coaches don't want the games called properly, and/or "tight." "This is AAU, man. You're gonna call THAT?!" I'm not sure what that means, since I would think the purpose of these games would be to prepare them for scholastic/collegiate basketball (aka "the real world"), while this philosophy achieves the exact opposite.

But because 95 percent of tournament hosts/site administrators won't support the ejection of paying fans and coaches, regardless of their level of civility, you do what you can to keep the games humming so the next batch of nutjobs can assume the court.

One technical to a coach who is likely long overdue for one is fine, and sometimes achieves the desired result. But a second is pointless, because you'll almost never have the site support to follow through with the penalty. And any AAU coach worth his backpack, slides and bluetooth will NEVER leave the confines when instructed to.

Coaches and fans generally lose their minds even more when their games are covered by officiating camps, because the games are officiated as they're supposed to be, and for whatever reason, nobody on the AAU circuit seems interested in that.

I always explain it to the layperson this way: If sanctioned high school/prep/college competition is a 95-100 on the "This is Basketball" scale with respect to rules, infrastructure and environment, AAU is like a 65.