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While I finished my JV and frosh High
School schedule a couple weeks ago, I still had a few Catholic league grade school games left. I had an interesting one yesterday. 4th grade playoffs, two teams in the lowest division (zero to two regular season wins). Game is understandably ugly as neither team has much offense. There is a rule of no backcourt pressure on a dead ball but if you call a TO in the last minute, the ball moves to the front court (ala NBA) to avoid a team killing the clock with timeouts. Score 12-10 with 15 secs. Gold brings the ball in following a violation and stands just behind midcourt to kill some clock, then calls TO with 8 seconds. They overthrow the inbounds from the division line and Green gets the ball. They inbound to their third best player, who dribbles until 2 seconds left and fires up a prayer from the top of the key to tie. (no 3 pointers in 4 grade) Defender puts his arms straight up and gets a piece of the ball. Game over. My partner and I head to the stage to change shoes as the Green scorekeeper comes over and says "Can you look me in the eye and say he wasn't fouled on that shot?" My partner and I state there was no foul. Scorekeeper says "that was the worst officiated game he's seen all year." I really wanted to say, was it my fault his team scored only 10 points, dribbled with their head's down, did not pass to open players, tried to force their way between two defenders and lost the ball, took off balance shots, couldn't break backcourt pressure, didn't work to get open for shots or passes, didn't box out or get position for rebounds, carried the ball frequently, fouled the other teams best free throw shooter, didn't set legal picks, didn't use the picks that were set legally, call all three timeouts and have none left when they needed one, but I didn't. I hope he uses his time to work with his team on improving and not worrying about officials. One game left on Tuesday, please pray for me.
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Mon Feb 28, 2005, 09:40am
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