Three Wrongs ???
 

Even so, I'm not sure that I would reset the clock.

If two wrongs make a right, do three wrongs make everything perfectly right?

What's the "wrong" limit? Four wrongs?

Preemptive To Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.: Shut Up ...
 

Blue font? Are you yanking my chain? Well consider it yanked.

I hate jump balls.

Too many rules for a once per game situation. Jumpers. Nonjumpers. On the circle. Off the circle. Before the toss. After the toss. Before the touch. After the touch.

Yada. Yada. Yada.

Back in ancient times, when there were almost a dozen jump balls in a game, at three different jump ball circles, players, coaches, and officials all knew the jump ball rules like the backs of their hands.

Now jump balls are like the Wild Wild West. Everything and anything goes. Toss the ball, pray that things go well, and pray that nobody notices if things don't go well.

Just give the damn ball to the visitors and use the alternating possession arrow for the rest of the game, including overtime, as God intended when he created the alternating possession arrow on the eighth day.

Forget about Dr. Naismith and nostalgia. It’s the freaking twenty-first century.

We did away with the chicken wire around the court, let's also 86 the jump ball.

I’d better get off my soapbox, I’m getting dizzy up here.

Hate to confuse this... BillyMac is my favorite post writer of all time...

ROFLMAO

I do not know how it is in the Nutmeg State but here in the Buckeye State one will find an AP Arrow at the Scorer's Table at every M.S., Jr. H.S., and H.S. I can honestly say that I have never (with apologies to the late J. Dallas Shirley) officiated a an OhioHSAA sanctioned game at a M.S., Jr. H.S., or H.S. that did not have an AP Arrow since the AP Rule was adopted.

MTD, Sr.

"Middle schools almost never have alternating possession arrows at the table."

Agree, I find it hard to believe that it is rare that a MS table has an arrow. Do these same schools also have scoreboards without an A/P indicator.

And if there actually is not physical A/P device one can be configured in about 3 seconds or less. Just draw an arrow on a sheet of paper or, just use a pen/pencil, shoe, stapler, or anything else as your arrow. Sure those items can get dislodged/bumped but scorer should be recording it anyway. Additionally, the chances of a McGyver-made arrow getting moved at the table are as remote as the school not having one in the first place. Lastly, each official should be, in their own respective way, recording the A/P arrow, especially when at these school which are known to not have one.;)

What BillyMac says of middle school tables is true in my area as well. Also, most of the scoreboards are old and either do not show possession or the operator has no clue how to post it.

I completely disagree with your statement that the officials should be recording the arrow. By rule, that is not our responsibility. If the scorer fails to track individual or team fouls, do you want the officials to keep those totals as well? Stop putting everything on the officials and let the other personnel handle their duties.

How much brain power does it take to remember the arrow? Seriously, it's not that hard and it prevents problems when you have tables that are less than stellar.

Guess what, I also keep track of team fouls, either by checking the scoreboard every time a foul is called or simply keeping track in my head.

I do the same thing as you and have been told by HS officials that it's "not our job." :rolleyes:

It's harder to continue to do at a MS game -- especially if it's girls and if you work two (or more) in a row.

Some of the games have more held balls than points (or so it seems)

I was taught to do so by a high school trainer my first few years in officiating. She would come up to us in camp games during breaks and ask us the score, team fouls, and AP arrow. That person is now a college supervisor for two NCAA-Women's conferences, one D1 and one D2, after serving a few years as a Women's D1 regional observer.

Braggart ...
 

An Arrow By Any Other Name ...
 

(With apologies to William Shakespeare.)

Agree, but we have a different solution. Here in my little corner of Connecticut, officials are strongly encouraged to keep some type of physical "arrow" on one's person, usually a whistle that changes pockets, sometimes an elastic band on one's wrist. We've been doing this since God created the alternating possession arrow on the eighth day.

It's our "Rome thing".

With one exception, all my middle school scorekeepers have been students, and I don't believe that any of them kept track of alternating possessions in the scorebook.

I worked an almost entire schedule of middle school games (post arthritis/bone spur) this year (one freshman game), at about a dozen and a half different middle schools and not one of them had a "real" arrow at the table. Alternating possession on the scoreboard? You've got to be kidding me (plus the NFHS states that the arrow on the scoreboard is irrelevant)? Not a single middle school had team fouls the scoreboard. One had one of those portable AAU-type scoreboards at the table.

"Is it one and one yet? Are you sure?" (knowing that it probably was).