You know, the kind of game where everything goes wrong and you, as a referee, look bad and worst, feel bad.

The kind of game where you keep rethinking, two or three days after the game, about those calls you should have made and did not make.

The kind of game that wants to make you quit refereeing.

Well, I got one of those.

The worst of it is that we both (the 2 referees) missed a girl kicking intentionnally another girl while being both tangled with the ball for a jumb ball (or possession arrow).The spectators saw it, another referee in the stands saw it, but we still both missed it. Therefore, we could not expel anyone.

Anyone of you live a similar situation? How do you cope with it? How do you motivate yourself to continue being a basketball referee?

I had one of those about 2 weeks ago. This team just couldn't compete with the other team, and they took to fouling and fouling hard. The fouls were 10-2 at the end of the first quarter, the coach seemed to rally all the parents against us, the coach was ejected, but refused to leave, it was horrible.

What keeps me going is that that was 1 game, out of about 400-500 in my carreer, that's less then 1%. The good games outnumber the bad games. All games can't be good, so when you get a bad one, deal with it the best you can and move on.

Your computer doesn't have room for me to offer you comfort by describing all the bad games, bad call, poorly handled situations in my murky past. And yet, I got a very nice varsity schedule in my fifth year (that may sound like a long time to some folks, but for me it was a miracle!), and I'm starting to seriously look at the possibility of actually getting some college games in the future sometime. If it can happen to me it can happen to anyone! The secret is to stick to it, and keep learning. The day you say to yourself, "Huh, I don't care what anyone says, I'm going to do it my way." that's the day your career is over, and you become a hack.

Having said that, however, I'll tell you my worst missed-flagrant-foul story. I was at a boys' team camp and working 6 or 7 games a day. Can you spell exhausted? Last day, working the 7th place game or some such. I was trail. Ball was inbounded to A1 who started slowly dribbling up the court while the thrower-in raced up to get into their offensive set. B1 is closely guarding the ball, and fakes one way, turns the other, and suddenly grabs the ball and steps back to his own basket for an easy 2. Meanwhile A1 crumples to the ground, moaning in pain. What I hadn't noticed, although I thought I had a great angle, was that B1 had gotten him good right in the onions. I didn't see it, so no ejection, not even a common foul, nothing. Try explaining that to A's coach!

Treat every call individually. Look at the positive things. Work on the misses or things you did not do so well. Be honest with yourself.

Usually missed calls are because of lack of hustle, not in good position and not anticipating the play (not the call).

The way you make sure you eliminate these situations, is to go to camps, in the summer work as much as possible without burning yourself out and during the season watching as much basketball officials as you can.

This is not an overnight thing, but if you work at it you will get better.

Peace

My question is did both of you close in? If you did that is probably why you missed it. If the ball is in your primary you should close in WITH YOUR WHISTLE. A Fox 40 can do wonders for stopping rough play on tie ups. The other official should observe from where they were, without closing in. Having a wider view is the key, that is why people in the stands could see it.

Stuff happens. I had a fight in a man's league a couple of weeks back. We had called fouls both ways, I called a double foul and got them together and told them to knock it off. A couple of minutes later one of the players played full back and ran over the other guy, I called a PC
foul and as I was reporting it the guy that committed the foul threw the ball at the other player. The ball struck player's teammate came after the other guy and pushed him.
The ball thrower tried to kick the pusher and the pusher missed with a punch.

Sometimes you can be on top of things and it can still turn to crap on you. Look back at what happened and see what you could have done differently, if anything, and learn from it.

Don't let it get to you, beyond making you better.
Good luck!

[Edited by blindzebra on Apr 11th, 2004 at 03:49 PM]

Listen closely to JRut's advice. Couldn't have said it any better. I would also just add missed calls can occur when you or your partner take your eye off players or action even just for one split second. Case in point - 2 players dive to the floor for loose ball: A fouls B in the process; I go to the table to report foul and while my back is to the players A kicks B while both are still on the floor; my partner doesn't see it (probably took his eye away from players for a split second); I didn't see it because I was reporting original foul; we can't make any call we have not seen even if the whole gymnasium sees it. Lessons: if your partner reports foul, keep your eyes on the players until he returns to the floor.

Blind Zebra wow you must have spent some time sorting that one out. Technicals, Players ejected. This might be a good opportunity to discuss what fouls, foul shots (if any), order of fouls etc you administered. Also what was ball doing in player's hand who threw it? Shouldn't your partner have had it after your whistle blew?......

Juulie - next thing you know, you'll be claiming this never happens in girl's games. ;)

You just have to be philosophical about it and put it behind you. I am sure that all of us who post here have had a similar game or two. Not all games are going to be sweet. Sometimes it is a lesson that tells you maybe you have to work that little bit harder in getting into a better position, etc. If you don't make a mistake, you won't learn.

It happened with just a couple of minutes left in the game.
The league administration called the game. We had a tech and a flagrant tech on the ball thrower/kicker and a flagrant tech on the pusher/puncher. Both players were ejected the thrower/kicker got banned and the pusher/puncher got suspended. Luckily we did not have anyone else join into the fighting, we did have players leaving both benches, so by rule we could have had more T's
for that, but they were trying to break things up.

The player never attempted a shot, so he never let go of the ball, he took it with him to the floor. My partner was doing what he's supposed to do, watching the players. The ball is secondary for the non-calling official.

Had we done every thing by high school rules, remember this is men's league and they are playing speed ball( no free throws),we'd have:

A. PC on A1
B. T on A1
C. Flagrant T on B2
D. Flagrant T on A1
E. Flagrant T on A6
F. Flagrant T on B6 and B7.

So we'd have 2 free throws for B, for A1's T, and then 2 free throws for A for the second player leaving the bench during a fight and A's ball at division line.

great job Zebra
 

Zebra.....you and your partner did a great job! He probably wouldn't have given your partner the ball anyway as he obviously had other plans for it!

Re: great job Zebra
 

Thanks.

Hey, gazou, one suggestion that might help if something unfortunate like this happens in the future: If I had an idea something unsportsmanlike had transpired, I would take the player aside as soon as possible, for a short chat about his/her behavior. It might not be the best solution, but might ward off escalation of problems.

Thanks to all of you for your encouragement. I realize now that I should have closed in earlier and not look at the possession arrow (that's what got my eyes off the girls)until every girl was on her feet. I certainly got a lesson from that game.

Anyway, next weekend, will be held the provincial (state, for the US) tournament in my city and I will be one of the referee for the 14 and 15 years old girl category.

I will certaily put in practice what I've learned.

Is this correct? I can't see shooting any FT's! 3 total T's to 3 total T's...and all occurred after the same dead ball. I'd lean toward reporting all the T's and fouls and go with AP.