Technical Foul Question
 

Has anybody ever given a technical foul for a coach staring you down.

Had a coach this evening who is known to be a little over the top, but is usually harmless.

Early in the game he indirectly questions my integrity by telling me I need to call the game fair(ly) because I had called the first 3 fouls on his team and the foul count is 3-0. I let that slide, and eventually the foul count is 6 to 6.

Late second quarter, I (Trail, tableside) call a player control foul on his point guard table side near the division line for extending his arm and knocking the defender off balance.

Coach goes on a rant about how his player didn't even extend his arm and was just running up the court. He adds a bunch of histrionics and I let him go for about 15 seconds. When he's done, I blow my whistle and issue a bench conduct warning. I proceed to go down to the end line table side and he follows me all the way to the end line. He doesn't say a word, but he is turned in my direction because I am out at the three-point line waiting for the throw-in. He is partially on the court and staring me down. I pop him with a T.

Let me first say before you answer, in retrospect, I should have moved myself out of harm's way after the warning by switching to Center official opposite the table.

My main question is, what is your philosophy on issuing a technical foul on a coach who purposely goes out of his way to stare you down?

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You got my vote when you said he followed you all the way to the baseline. He's purposely going out of his way (literally and figuratively in this case...) to try and show you up. Sounds like you warned him and gave him a chance.

Technical Foul Question
 

I think this falls under the category of “Play silly games, win silly prizes.”

Good for you. Maybe if stays in the box, it can just be ignored. But he wanted everyone in the gym to know what he thought of you. So…legit whack.

Is there a full moon tonight? I also had a wacky coach this evening. Foul count 7-1 at one point, and honestly we’re trying to find opposition fouls and there’s just nothing there. Then one of his players loses awareness of his surroundings in transition on offense and absolutely creams a defender who knew this and got himself planted like a tree at mid court. Beep! Easy TCF, but the coach seemed to think it should have been a “play on” and lost his marbles (jacket off, magic words, etc.). Partner whacks. Then he starts moving toward me across the court. I almost ran him; fortunately his assistant corralled him.


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Honestly, Id probably not even notice the stare down unless he was trying to belly up to me. Sounds like he deserved it well before that point.

I respectfully disagree with this. It’s on the coach to change his behavior after he’s been warned, and the issuing official’s presence tableside shouldn’t be a factor.

After a technical foul, sure, we definitely should go opposite. But just for a bench warning, I’m not forcing a switch. If the coach wants to continue to be a dick, I have no problem going to the next step.

Game Management ...
 

Sorry that you had deal with a coach causing such difficult game management situations.

This guy was due a technical foul before, during, and/or after the stare down, whatever suited you best at the moment. I can't comment on the best time because I think that I had to be there, but in my report to my assigner, I would stress the "partially on the court" part rather than the "stare down" part.

Also can't comment on whether, or not, the written warning was necessary, possibly going directly to the technical foul, again, had to be there, but it was patient of you, and normally a good game management tool, to give him the optional warning.

Moving away? Another good game management tool, but I normally don't move away after a written warning, only after an actual technical foul, to avoid the immediate double barrel ejection, and allowing my partner to inform him to take a seat, also possibly avoiding a double barrel ejection.

Where were your partner(s) while this was going on? Did he (they) want you to check something under the bus?

Having met you, watched you officiate and knowing that the local coaches know you, I am sort of shocked that a coach would try you....

They Snap ...
 

Sometimes the most well behaved coaches, for some unknown reasons, just seem to occasionally find a hill that they insist on dying on, no matter how much they respect the official.

I have never given a T for that. Not to say I have not been close. Had a JUCO coach come close to be thrown out for partially doing that. But I was waiting for him to do something I could easily pin on him. He got the message and moved on while sulking. And he was getting his ass beat by 30, so it mattered little to me to find a reason to get rid of him. I have him later in the year and a lot of what I did was for the future, not just that game.

Peace

Regrets, I've Had A Few (Frank Sinatra, 1968) ...
 

Many years ago. Girls varsity prep school game. With seconds to go in the first half, girl trips (she didn't get tripped, she tripped) and severely hurts her knee. Head coach and trainer come out to attend to her in front of her bench. During the several minutes it took to attend to her, the coach has a few irate words for us (more than just one outburst) to indicate his displeasure in my partner and I "causing his player to get hurt". We should have said, "Shut up and deal with your player's injury. You're not allowed out here on the floor to take pot shots at us" (or something more professional than that), but not wanting to detract from the serious injury situation in front of us, my partner and I both physically retreated away from the situation on the floor to the opposite table side of the court, and passed on a well deserved technical foul.

At halftime, in the privacy of the dressing room, we discussed it and decided that the severity of the injury, and our concern for the injured player, "numbed" us to the poor behavior of the coach, but that he "wouldn't get away with it", and that he would be immediately T-ed up for any unsporting comment, no matter how slight, in the second half (probably unprofessional to make him an automatic T-target, but he deserved it).

Decades later, and we're still waiting for that unsporting comment. We missed our chance and he got away with murder.

We always seem to regret the technical fouls we passed on. We never seem to regret the technical fouls we issued.

More than forty years and this one might be the one that I regret the most.

Mattered Little ...
 

It probably mattered little to you because it mattered so little to him.

While certainly not the same in college, here in my little comer of Connecticut all unsporting technical fouls on high school coaches (and players) are reported to our assignment commissioner who reports such to athletic directors, so a technical foul in a blowout may still carry some consequences for the coach. Connecticut ejections are reported to our assignment commissioner who reports such to our state interscholastic sports governing body (CIAC), who reports such to both athletic directors and school principals, coming with a mandatory two game suspension.

Also, all Connecticut coaches are on renewable one year contacts, that sometimes quietly don't get renewed with such "personnel" decisions taking place in school board "behind closed doors" executive sessions.

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Stop Staring And Trying To Intimidate Me ...
 

Indianaref: Nice video citation.

Whack, get out. He didn’t say a word. I asked him three times to stop staring and trying to intimidate me. He did it again. He’s gone. (Ron Garretson, 2000)

Jeff:

I agree with you. There are many times we would just love to whack a Coach on general principles but staring at you is just not one of those things that would be looked upon favorably by the powers that be.

MTD, Sr.

Ran into my commissioner today. Asked him if the school had said anything about it, he said no. And he didn't say anything about it either when I reported it to him initially.

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