What can you do?

[Hartsy]

Originally posted by kdays78
Have you guys ever worked a game with a new partner that seems to be struggling?
It just seemed like the play was some of the worst I have seen this year.
Fans had no clue (when do they ever) but they did pay there $4 so why not blame the ref for a poor excuse of a basketball game with non stop complaining. I am trying not to pass the blame but there were some calls for a 9 year veteran that made it hard to keep in the flow of the game.
Just little things like that kept adding up through out the night.


I was just curious if you guys have ever been in games where you feel it is giving your career a black mark? If so what did you do?


Thanks

I worked a GJV that went just this way. Some really ugly basketball. Not much my partner and I could do to help clean it up. In fact, we probably made it look worse than it was. To say the game didn't flow well is an understatement.

Partner had a quiet whistle and was more hesitant on his calls than I sometimes can be as a second year guy. He corrected himself on a bad backcourt call, called a block/charge just as you described, and more than once once didn't whistle on an OOB on his line.

To top it off the game was a close one, with the visitors ahead most of the way. So you can imagine the crowd response. Coaches were not too bad.

I worked it as Mick suggests, and tried to smile as much as I could. Communicated verbally with the players more than usual to explain what was happening at times. This seemed to help some.

I can't offer much more. Don't worry about how you looked. I talked to the coaches after my game (unusual for me) but home coach said all his games are like that. I figure the same in your case. You probably didn't look too bad.