My first game as an official!!
 

My first for alot of things posting on the board here and my first basketball game tomorrow {tuesday 30th}. Im a little nervous, but i have done alot of scrimmages. I know its probaly not going to be the same, but I how hope I do allright. Any advice from pre-game to last whistle would be appreciated!!! thanks SCHU

Relax and have fun. You will grow with experience and will make mistakes from now until you stop officiating, like us all. Apply what you know right now to the best of your abilities.

I agree with tomegun - relax and have fun. Along the lines of what he said, be ready to forget your mistakes as soon as they happen. You can review your mistakes at half-time or after the game, but during the game you need to put them out of your mind and concentrate on what is happening "right now!"

Enjoy!

Had an evalutor tell me once that I could take solice in the fact that I $ucked for both teams :D

You're gonna kick a call or two, you'll probably catch yourself watching the ball, etc, etc.

As they have said...during the game just focus on the task at hand. Post game, and a little at halftime, is when the evaluation should happen.

Most of all...have fun.

Don't forget the most important rule of all - tuck your whistle in your shirt before you take a leak.

And take your whistle out of your mouth before you throw up the jump ball!

Reminds me of my first scrimmage. I enter the court, nervous as all, and I hear the kids saying (8th grade)"Wow, we have a real ref." I almost said , "Where??"

Taking notes!!
 

I, too, am a new official this season. I'm taking notes!... Especially from Mark Padgett's advice...! LOL Seriously, we don't think about these things! :p

So it doesn't get wet. :D

I also tuck it in my shirt at the final horn -- you don't want to leave something hanging off your shirt that some idiot could grab.

I realize that you probably don't have to worry about such things, but you never know.

You will be given many things to think about/correct, just don't try to fix everything at once. Concentrate on one item per quarter (ie. this quarter I'm going to concentrate on getting my hand up when I make a call). Then next quarter move on to something else. This works a lot better than trying to think of the 1000+ things you need to do all the time. Hopefully the things you concentrated on each game will be second nature in a few games.
Good luck.

Two best pieces of advice I ever recieved:

1. Find your defense

2. Think advantage vs. disadvantage

these sound trite to officials who have been calling for some time, but they really help when you are out there on the court with a whistle in your mouth for the first few times. Like someone said there are a thousand different things you have to do, but if you can focus on these two things you will be light years ahead of your experiences. Good luck:)

It took me about 20 games to really understand what this means and get comfortable. During the first half I tried this, I was looking so closely at the defender that I think I missed a double dribble and a travelling violation.

I still remind myself a couple times a game to referee the defense, especially on fast breaks. Also, referee the second rebounder. That's more great advice.