Had an 'older' official give me a tip I wanted to pass along. It came from working my first 'big' JV game and having the arrow up on the scoreboard.

Prior to this game all my games had an arrow at the scoring table so direction was a pretty easy matter. But up on the wall at the end of the gym was a new deal for me.

A habit of carrying an extra whistle had already been ingrained from working football, so I carried one with me working BB too. Seemed like a good idea to me anyway. So to keep track of the PA I simply switch my whistle from one pocket to the other. When there is a JB whichever side my whistle is on while facing the benches indicates the direction of the ball.

Now if I can only remember to switch the whistle every time... ;)

It works fine for JV level stuff, but I would work hard at dropping the habit for varsity. It looks goofy, and there's no reason to hurry, so you can take the time to look at the board and figure it out.

Don't the rules state that the arrow must be on the table??

I don't have my book with me right now so I'm not 100% sure, but that's what I thought it says.

Whether the rule states that or not is sometimes irrelevant. We've all done games where they didn't have one.

1-16. First time I've ever used Rule 1!

I'd rather use a water bottle at the table than that darn arrow on the scoreboard. When I was doing mostly rec and little kids stuff, I carried a small neon orange pylon in the trunk of my car. Laid on its side, it makes a good arrow. You just have to show the people at the table how to use it. Really not acceptable for HS stuff, though.

If you had to help people figure out how to turn a cone on it's side, working the clock must have been like neurophysics to them. ;)

This is another one of those nit-picky evaluator things -- someone has a personal thing against this, so it becomes "goofy." Truth is, the only person that would ever notice something like this is an official (or evaluator) looking for it. Moving a whistle from one pocket to another could be done quite discreetly.

That said, it's better to just remember the arrow.

My pet peeve is the official that turns all the way around to look at the arrow. There's one official already "facing" the arrow and that official should be the one to give direction after an AP situation.

Maybe, but if I've been told that such and so of an evaluator hates this (and I have been so told), I'm sure not going to do it!!

Here's a tip: keep the arrow in your head. Don't trust your spare whistle or rubber band to be right. Never trust the table to be right. It's easy to do.

Look like you're playing pocket pool.

I fully support this. In fact, I've been doing this exact mechanic for about 5 years now. It has saved me many many many times.

I also know that 'to move to the next level', this sort of thing is frowned upon. They say you should know the arrow in your head. Whatever.

Do what gets you to the next level. For me, I have no desire to do University level ball. That's why I do what I want to do. Like I said, that mechanic has saved our *** many times over.

I have been working on keeping track of the arrow in my head. I have seen even tabled arrows not being switched. Try keeping it in your head.

I would not rely on the scoreboard. There is no reason that a school cannot get an arrow at the table. That's where it supposed to be. If there is not an arrow they can get you one. A marker one on cardboard is better than one on the board...

Keep the arrow in your head. After each held ball, mentally tell yourself two or three times who gets the next alternating possession.

I had an evaluator tell me that if he ever caught anyone doing the whistle switch, that official would never work a game for him ever again.

Juulie's exactly right. Get something on the table. We have a local school that just got nifty new scoreboards and for some reason, they think that's good enough. I've been there several times over the last two years and I always have to ask for an arrow at the table. (I know they have one, so why don't they just use it?) I always get the same response: "Why? It's on the scoreboard". Last week, it went even further. The guy at the table asked me "Well, if it's the rule, why don't we have to have it for any other game?" Dude, get me an arrow, or we don't start on time (I was a little more polite than that). So out comes a new, really cool-looking, high-tech, possession arrow that they just got. I don't know what the deal is with them.

As to remembering the arrow. As Dan said it's not that hard. Here's how to do it. For your backcourt, closely guarded, and inbounding counts, instead of counting "1-1,000 2-1,000 3-1,000" count "1-red arrow, 2-red arrow, 3-red arrow". Use it for every time you count, and you'll know the possession arrow on nearly every trip down the court.