Halfway Through A 2-Person Varsity Season, and...

[Paintguru]

Originally Posted by Nevadaref

I’m going to have to disagree. I enjoy 2-man officiating a great deal more than 3 because of that physical challenge that it is and the game management skills which are necessary with both the players and coaches. Also, there are times when you simply must make an educated guess. A call or decision is absolutes necessary and you didn’t have the ideal look, but there is no way that your partner can help. This is where experience and the art of officiating have a place as opposed to it being broken down to a science of NCC, CC, and IC.
And don’t tell me about backward areas or low-skill level of play. I work numerous games in CA which uses 2-man (in most of the state) with a shot clock.
I also don’t care for whistle-happy, robot officials. You can achieve freedom of movement and game flow with a few well-placed whistles. You don’t need to have 3 of the 5 starters on the bench with two minutes left in the first quarter and both teams in the automatic bonus before halftime. Over-called games aren’t enjoyable to me.
It also seems that your partner has part of his philosophy backwards. I would suggest to focus on judging the contact situations and getting the hard fouls while letting some of the violations and little stuff off-ball go. Traveling is insignificant compared to a kid getting his front teeth knocked out.
Finally, the level of physical play allowed in the game moves through cycles. I believe that a correction to the hands off and freedom of movement emphases of a few years ago is taking place now.

I mostly agree with this. I'm only in year 2 of my basketball refereeing career, so I've worked exclusively 2-man. I enjoy the running and active role that I feel I play, but one thing I do struggle with is catching all the off-the-ball stuff (illegal screens, grabs/holds). This leads to inconsistent calling of games, which can lead to grumpy coaches/players. I think the solution of those that the OP is working with is to not call anything off the ball. However, if I want to show my worth as an official and "graduate" to higher level games, I feel like I SHOULD be calling those off the ball things. Unfortunately, if we combine my inability to get all the off-the-ball stuff with a partner that is not interested in getting those calls, it can lead to issues.