Two Person Mehanics Far Side line coverage

[Kelvin green]

Originally posted by Rich Fronheiser

It's a Wisconsin thing, I think -- not sure if RefMag is the cause of it, but RefMag is published in the Milwaukee area.

MTD -- the mechanic is that the trail (in 2-whistle) whistles and calls all the OOB call in his primary -- any ball that goes OOB above the free throw line extended on the opposite side of the court gets whistled and called by the trail official.

This mechanic is terrible, IMO.

(1) What if the ball goes out near the FT line? Will both officials call it? Or look at each other? Or, or, or....

(2) What if the ball is slowly, slowly rolling towards the OOB line between the FTLE and the division line? How can the trail tell if it is really out of bounds or not?

(3) Don't officials have peripheral vision? This mechanic seems to stress that an official wouldn't see a ball going out of bounds if it isn't in his primary -- but you have to have AWARENESS of where the ball is. If you don't know who's responsible, blow the whistle, stop the clock, and look to your trail partner for help. Gee, that's what we've always done.

I live in Wisconsin, but my regular partner and I are not from here so this mechanic is not used and seems quite foreign to me.

YMMV.

But this is one place I'm thrilled the NFHS manual sees it my way

--Rich

I am going to be a pain in the butt...
This is not just a Wisconsin thing. I ave seen it used in the west quite a bit. I believe the first people to promulgate this were the NBA 2 man officials. I know I have seen this mechanic now for 8-10 years. I think I have used it for nearly that long...

I will disagree with you. It is a good mechanic. Most of us in my area use this on a regular basis. Most of the time It is an extension of the primary area.

The one question is what happens if the ball goes OOB near the FT line...If lead had the play then lead calls it, if lead is off ball, trail has the best angle and call. You have to remeber that 98% of the time lead is off ball when this mechanic occurs...

This mechanic is designed to give the best look at the OOB and not a guess. You are right that officials can use peripheral but I believe there are many times when a lead official is working correctly that there is awareness of the ball but given a quick skip pass, or quick kick out often times a lead has no clue.

I have worked with good officials who even below FT line did not know the ball has gone out and Trail helped out and got primary whistle. This mechanic allows the most obvious trail calls to go trail.

The other situation this avoids is no off ball coverage. If you have ball up high who has the primary job of officiating the ball? trail of Course. The ball starts to drift to the opposite sideline, who has responsibility for the play? Trail.

But if we assert that the line is solely leads responsibility lead now is going wide to pick up the line. Lead is watching the line and Trail is officiating 2-4 players. Who has the other 6 banging in the paint? Not lead he is too worried about his line? Not trail he is officiating the ball.. Trail drifts toward middle maybe even farther and sees the whole play. I'd much rather miss one OOB at trail on that sideline than the banging that may be going on in the paint...

In the above play Trail is now closest to play and can get play and can get ball in better and faster.