Well, I'm freshly back from camp. Enjoyed the heck out of it this year. But I noticed that there are not very many stories from people who have been camping this summer. So I thought I'd see if I could get some of you to share. I'll start. (Dan's already heard it. Sorry, Dan.)

My worst whistle of camp came in my very first game. The game was played on a very cramped court. Ten players and 3 refs were a tight squeeze. And forget about rotating unless you want your Lead to get run over by cutters in the lane.

Kid is dribbling in transition, but is trying to get through about 4 defenders at once. The dribble is interrupted, he gets it back, it gets loose, he catches it, fumbles it, catches it ("Mass hysteria!!"). He pushes the ball to start a new dribble, the ball hits the floor and I hit my whistle. As soon as my whistle goes, a defender knocks the ball away. The guy never actually dribbled again.

Well, a D1 assignor and a Final Four official are both watching this cluster-dexter and look across the floor at me, half questioning, half laughing. I just waived them off. Like, "I know, I know". So they were laughing at me. After a switch or something, I'm on the other side of the floor and the Final Four official says, "So, Chuck, uh, what did you have on that? Travel, double-dribble?" I said, "It was going to be a double dribble". The assignor laughed right out loud. "I like that!! It was 'going to be'! I'll remember that one".

And not for nothing, but tomegun can ref some hoop! We didn't get to work together, but I peeked in on him a couple times. :) Hope you guys made it back ok, Tom!

Quick whistle huh? Still sneaks up once in a while on all of us. But I'm confused. You said:

<i>He pushes the ball to start a new dribble, the ball hits the floor and I hit my whistle. As soon as my whistle goes, a defender knocks the ball away. The guy never actually dribbled again.</i>

If he pushed the ball to start a new dribble and the ball hit the floor, isn't that a dribble?

Z

Maybe, but it's not a violation until he touches it again. Otherwise, you could never throw a bounce pass after you ended your dribble.

Oh I don't know.... if it's a bounce pass, it's not a dribble (judgment right?). A dribble is started by pushing the ball to the floor (Art 15.3). It doesn't say you have to touch it again for it to be a dribble. If you thought the player at camp was dribbling when they pushed the ball to the floor, you called the violation correctly right? Check out case 4.15.4 Situation A. Note that the violation occurs when A1 pushes the ball to the floor, not when A1 catches it after it hits the floor. Under your explanation, A1 might have been passing so it couldn't have been a violation until A1 touched it again.

Z

Thanks Chuck. We made it back OK. Sorry we didn't get a chance to talk very much until last night.

I have worked on many different courts in my time but last weekend took the cake! Rain forced us to courts where a beam was on the endline right in the middle of the lane and working the endline forced you to be partially on the court. There was no line with space since the next court's sideline was literally about 1 foot away! Ridiculous. Now every court will feel like open space. Oh, it was also basically a cement slab that was slippery from the humidity. CRAZY but fun. :D

I went to Bob Delaney's referee development school and it was unbelieveable! It was a very one on one instruction with Bob himself. It was me and three other guys. My first day of officiating was horrible. I was so nervous because I didn't know the NBA rules that well and on top of that I was reffing Chauncey Billups, Tashaun Prince, Al Harrington, and Chucky Atkins just to name a few. I think that would make anybody a little nervous the first time. The second day though I felt pretty good. I got to T up Sebastian Telfair and it felt like an honor. the academy where the camp is held is unbelieveable. There is an International Performance Institute and a mental conditioning facility just to name several.

It was a great experience!!!

Sounds like a couple of the grade school gyms I've been in...

You said rain forced you to these courts - were you doing outside games originally?

Yes, the 5-star camp is outside on 8 courts.

I can promise you, these courts were worse than any elementary school court. It would be too dangerous for grade school kids.

I went to camp at the end of July and there was a guy there that works (or has worked) with you. I only talked to him in the classroom cuz he wasn't in my grouping. He told me his name but I don't remember it. All I can tell you is that he was from Springfield, MA.