Its Got No Teeth ...

[Raymond]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

Avoiding irritants is not the same as cowardly conduct. It's good game management.



What leads to the unsporting behavior and conduct? Most times it's a biased one sided view, or just anger at a missed call (we all miss calls occasionally), but sometimes it's due to a misinterpretation of a rule and 99% of the time the officials know the application of the rule better than the coach.

Example. Two years ago. Last minute of a close game. Small player in the act of shooting is barreled into by a much larger player like a linebacker hitting a running back. No attempt to block the shot, just a hard body check. Ball doesn't go in basket. I've got intentional foul for excessive contact. Coach questions me about my call, "That's not an intentional foul", as I report. I calmly take and extra step and explain my call to him. He actually agrees that there was excessive contact but that it isn't an intentional foul. I tell him that by definition, excessive contact is an intentional foul. I guess that didn't persuade him because as I walk back to administer the free throw, he questions me again, "That's not an intentional foul". So turn around to calmly talk to him again, leading with, "Was that contact excessive?". He replies that it was excessive and I tell him again that by definition, excessive contact is an intentional foul, and I walk back to administer the free throws with my partner. As we're lining up for the free throws he now proceeds to yell at me from across the gym, "You're wrong. That's not an intentional foul". Technical foul.

Definitely unsporting behavior and conduct. What lead to that? Arguing about what a rule is.

The T is for unsporting behavior, not for not knowing the rule.

Since you already operate on the premise that coaches don't know the rules, shouldn't you have been able to avoid that "irritant"? Did worrying about what coaches might think prevent the situation from happening?

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by Raymond

The T is for unsporting behavior, not for not knowing the rule.

If the coach had known the definition of a intentional foul, which he obviously didn't, then there would have been no technical foul because he agreed with me that the contact was excessive.

Originally Posted by Raymond

Since you already operate on the premise that coaches don't know the rules, shouldn't you have been able to avoid that "irritant"?

Not sure how? Knowing that he didn't know the rule, I twice calmly explained to him the definition of an intentional foul (that it included excessive contact), once from a step toward him from reporting area, and again face to face.

I am very patient with coaches (I coached for twenty-five years). I don't give out technical fouls like penny candy, nor do I falsely pride myself on not charging technical fouls, as some do. I am very confident in my game management skills, and I am evaluated as such by both evaluators and partners.

I honestly don't know how I could have avoided that technical foul. The coach was well behaved for thirty minutes. For some reason he decided to die on that hill.