Has anyone ever done something really stupid on the floor and you just wanna crawl in a whole for the rest of the game!? I did something today that was just like AGH! DUMBO! when I did it. Whats a good way of handling this situation when trying to not let it get to you soo much. Needless to say my butt got ROASTED by my supervisor which afterwords he gave me 10 minutes of praise for a call I made in the next game but still. Its still eating at me and it shouldn't be.

Needless to say I've learned how to handle this situation in the future... Just learned the hard-way.

If I could only tackle handling coaches better...

OH YEAH ... Inadvertant whistles are jump-balls right? (totally different situation)

[Edited by ace on Dec 22nd, 2003 at 11:17 PM]

Whoa, you need to learn this one, Ace, or you're gonna have your supervisor screaming at ya again. :D.

See casebook play- 7.5.4. If the inadvertant whistle went when a team had player or team control, then that team would get the ball OOB for a throw-in. If neither team has player or team control when the inadvertant whistle happens(like during a shot,rebound,etc), you would go with the arrow. If the whistle went after A's shot had gone through, then B would get the ball along the end line for a throw-in, same as after any made basket.

There's a related thread down below somewhere with a good point in it. In the 3rd case above- where the whistle went during the shot attempt- if the ball went in, it probably should be an end line throw-in for the team that was scored on- not an AP.

JR - Drop me one off the board please

Ace -- we've all done these, some of us (notice this includes me!) more than some of you others. You are a hard-working, passionate-about-reffing guy who is trying to get better. That puts you head and shoulders above the rest, no matter how many awful mistakes you make. You want to do well, and you will.

What worked for me was to:

a) get back on the bicycle as soon as possible, figuratively speaking, of course. Don't take a break.

b) figure out why it happened. Rummage back through the thought process that led up to the error, and find that nasty little stinker that messed up the whole thing. A distraction? A mis-remembered rule? An emotional reaction to something that happened earlier in the game or earlier in the day?

c) Learn to fake it, till you make it. Find someone who handles this kind of situation (I mean the lead up, not the error!) very well, and copy them. At first, it won't come naturally -- mistakes are what come naturally. But if you get through the process in a fake -- but healthy -- way a few times, doing it right will start to feel natural, and then be natural.

For instance, in an emotional game, who in your association is very, very cool, and projects that onto the players and coaches? Go watch quite a few of those games. Talk to that person, and find out what they are thinking. When you're not working, practice in your head -- how do I maintain self-control? how do I talk to the coach? how do I move? How does my face look? etc. Do it correctly over and over both in and out of a game.

d) Don't shrug it off, exactly, but also, don't take it too much to heart. Remember, you're not as good as your best game, but you're also not as bad as your worst game. The big picture on reffing is that even if you blow the call on the winning shot of the NBA championship game, and ruin your career -- your reffing career is all you've blown. There are no human lives at stake. And in spite of what the coach says, one bad call won't ruin anyone else's career besides your own. If you start to get obsessive about one bad call, you need to do some positive thinking exercises, and learn some forgiveness.

The most important thing to remember is that, if the rainmaker can get past these kinds of situations, anyone can!!

Good luck!

Are you gonna make us guess? :)

When I screw up, I keep telling myself that my "perfect" game is just around the corner.

Bad Screw up solution -

Get the ball back into play. Amazing how a player dribbling through a full court press changes the coach, players and crowds recollection of the "kicked' call you just laid on the floor.

Make a bad call - look hard for a better one!

It wasn't so bad that I want to quit or take a break (what a crappy time too right before the holidays when NOBODY is playing) but it was just one of those things. I'd tell ya but like I said I've been roasted once enough on it. And as soon as it happened I was like o crap. Incidently enough the inadvertant whistle happend in the 3rd. This incident was right before half time. I've never been in that situation... and now I am glad I was becasue I'll know how to handle it next time or atleast look like I do.

ace, I think I did one better. And yes I still feel bad. My first HS game last Friday. I called an unsproting T on a player with 50sec. left in the game. Team A up by 1 point ( I think Team A was the better Team), I called a foul on A1, A1 turns to me, waves his hands in the air, as if to say "i didn't touch him". Yak-T. Note; I remember about 3 or 4 years ago, on the Women's side, they want a T for this action. Well, Team B was in the double bounus. They made 2 of the 4 shots and then scored on their possession, so now Team A is down by 3 and they lost the game. Lesson learned. Whats strange is this is out of character for me.

Hey Ace, part of the purpose and usefulness of this board is to learn from our own and other's mistakes. If you don't want to share that is fine. Keep in mind that you were glad you were in the situation, so that you now would know how to handle it. Your sharing the situation may keep someone else from getting stuck in the same situation. So please reconsider your original roasting, and bruising of your ego, and maybe help some of your fellow officials stay out of trouble... just my 2 cents worth

Welcome to the club, Ace :D

You know, I almost posted this a few days ago when it happened, and didn't. But I'll throw it out now.

Freshman girls. Six seconds left in the game, visitors up by two. I'm watching off ball. My partner calls the visitor's guard for a push. Crowd, coaches, and players go ballistic! Amidst the howling, we march determinedly to the other end and shoot two free throws. Home team ties the game and wins in overtime.

It isn't until I'm in the shower that I start to get that sinking little feeling. I call my partner, ask him specifically if the foul was on the ball handler. Yes. The girl who actually had the ball, she was dribbling the ball when she fouled, correct? Yep. AGH! He was not aware that we don't shoot free-throws on PC fouls.

Emailed the assigner that night and fessed up. Talked to him on Saturday and his response was classic: "That's one mistake you'll never make again." He's right.

Set it aside and move on.

Kinda cute that coach B couldn't muster a simple "hey ref, why we shooting on a PC foul?".

Oh well...

9th boys. H down by 1, racing down the court for a last shot. I'm lead, got the whole play in my sights. A1 takes a running J from about 13 feet on a 45 degree approach, on my side. Shot goes up, misses, B1 gets rebound.
Tweet!
"Huh?" I wonder as I look at partner.
"Timeout H!" he says.
V coach offers a little resistance, but immediately returns to drawing up a defense for a last second shot attempt; again.
A1 misses the second last second shot, V wins, and all is okay. Partner realizes he should have held the whistle.

Evaluator says the same thing. :)

B1 had the rebound, then you gave team A a TO, and after the TO you give team A the ball instead of team B?

And the B coach just offered a "little resistance"? I'm very surprised that he didn't go completely nuts.

I agree with JR. This sounds like you compounded one error by making yet another. If the reason that the TO should not have been granted was that B had ball and A requested TO, you have to grant the TO once you blow the whistle. But you DO NOT give the ball to A - that never should have occurred. You fess up to the error in granting the TO request, apologize to the B coach, and let everybody know that it's B's ball coming back in.

Sorry, I forgot to mention that parter's determination was that coach A had requested the timeout prior to A1 shooting. The whistle blew as the ball was getting to B1's hands.
I see three options after the whistle blew.
1) the option we went with, determine the TO was requested before the shot.
2) Inadvertent whistle, TO for A, B ball.
3) Inadvertent whistle during the shot, TO for A, AP for ball.

I made contact with a player while stepping between two players who I thought were about to go at it. In the process I totally forgot that I signaled intentional foul when I first blew my whislte (which was correct). I'm very lucky the player didnt cold clock me... As I blew the whistle I closed down hard. A1 was yaking and B1 turned around suddenly and said something... it was that point in time I got inbetween them and accidently bumped B1 with my chest which is an aggressive type of body language. I didnt intent to bump him but I did. I've never been in a situation where I felt like I had to step in between two players. I walked with B1 to the bench and told the coach he should probably sub him before B1 recieved a technical foul. It was a close game. Meanwhile... I go to finally report the foul and I totally forgot about the intentional call 1 and 1. A coach goes balistic. sayingYOU CALLED AN INTENTIONAL! So I asked my partner and he said with all the follwoing stuff that insued he forgot. So we gave them the one and one.

Things I learned:
1)If two players wanna go for it - let them do it and take numbers.
2)Only step inbetween players if they're more than 4 feet apart so you dont accidently bump a player
3)ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS make mental note of the foul you signaled before you started trying to keep the game from tunring into a wrestling match.
4)Again, if two players wanna do something referee the fight and penalize accordingly.

A cardinal sin, making contact with a player. It just totally took me out of my game because soon as I got him away from A1 I'm thinking oh crap I just became the aggressor!

So thats my story...

He is a new coach, which prolly explains why my assigner hadn't gotten a call even a few days later. My partner, however, did not signal a PC--he signaled a push. If he had signaled PC, several of us would not have let the free-throws happen. :(

[Edited by Back In The Saddle on Dec 23rd, 2003 at 06:24 PM]

Ace -- freshman girls this afternoon. I arrived with 10 minutes to game time, partner arrived with 5. We did a quick pre-game, checked the book, talked to coaches, got a game ball. I walked out onto the floor and went into my pre-toss routine. "11, tuck your shirt. 33, foot out of the circle. Ready? Hold your spots! White (point right) Red (point left)" pause -- " @$%# " no whistle.

Ace, I only did it to make you feel better.

:laugh: Thanks Julie, You intentionaly forgot your whistle or posted the story? Either way thanks for the laugh. The incident isn't bothering me as much as my life (wait- Are we really allowed to have one of those? LOL) is now but when I think about it, im like , gee John that was stupid.

Thanks for the laugh Julie. Have a merry one.

Your P determined that the request came before the loss of player control. Regardless of what happens to the ball, I got a TO to A, and A's ball when we come back.

B didn't grab the rebound because there was no shot. All B did was jump up and catch a ball that bounced off the rim.

Similarily, had the basket gone in, there was no basket and all A did was throw a dead ball through his basket.

This is my understanding of the rule. If I missed something, someone please tell me. The calling official needs a (split-?)second to determine that

(a) it was in fact the head coach that requested the timeout (and not an assistant or player)

and

(b) that team A player still had player control when the request was made

hey Ace,
Thanks for the situation. Don't be too hard on yourself, I don't think what you did is one of the Cardinal sins. Player safety is first and foremost in our minds, and letting them hit each other in the mellon doesn't seem too safe to me :)...The worst thing I see from the whole post is that you forgot what you called, which given the situation is certainly understandable...Getting between the players kept them from getting together, I know you bumped him, but you were just stopping an escalating situation. Keep up the good work...

I don't <i>totally</i> agree with this one...

If two players start <b>fighting</b> then I would say, yes, get the heck out of the way -- beckon the coaches and try to keep the other players away from each other (and the players on the bench ON the bench)

However, if two players just want to get in each other's face, etc. I would step in between them. In fact, I've had to do this twice in the last couple of weeks.

Of course, both times they were guards and I'm 6'5".

And Ace, well, you're not :)

I had two similiar games where in one, two officials that I really think a lot of ended up working with me a couple of years ago when my partner could not make it at the last minute. To rhis day I don't know why but I could not do anything right in that game, (I think I was trying to hard in retrospect). Then at a camp here two years ago I had a game where I could not get in sync and then the evaluator/teacher started getting on my case and I could not do anything right. I was consistent from beginning to end, TERRIBLE. Both games I just wanted to hide some where and never come back. I had a hard time bouncing back from those two games and remember that my confidence sure took a temporary hit.