While shopping at Costco the other day, I noticed they are selling a Wilson basketball. On the box, it says, "Official Size and Weight - 29.5"

Now I know that the official men's ball is 30" and the women's ball is 28.5". So what the heck ball is official at 29.5"?

Could this be the english measure equivalent of some metric FEEBLE, er I mean FIBA, ball?

Anybody know what's going on - or did Wilson just misprint the boxes and the balls?

Hey, maybe they're trying to save SKUs (a retail term) by making an "average" size ball?

BTW - Rainmaker (Juulie) and I did two games together today. In the second, team A was up by three (37-34) when they fouled B1 on a three pointer with 2 seconds to go (real smart - not!). The shot didn't go in, so B1 went to the line to shoot 3. She missed the first and made the second. On the third, she missed, but A1 violated (she entered the lane long after B1 had the ball) and I blew the whistle as soon as the shot came off the rim. It was too bad, because the ball came straight to the shooter and she had the opportunity to beat the clock with a wide open easy shot to tie. We reshot and B1 missed again, and the rebound was knocked away as the clock ran out.

Not a good game, but a close one.

Also BTW - I made the last foul call and a few moments earlier (7 seconds to go) I made an intentional foul call on B2 when she ran up to A2 and pushed her in the back with one hand. Coach B moaned about the call and I just told him to surprise everyone and read a rulebook for once.

Hmm, look at NF 1.12.1.d:

The circumference shall be:
1. Within a minumum of 29 1/2 inches to a maximum of 30
inches for high school boys competition.
2. Within a minumum of 28 1/2 inches to a maximum of 29
inches for high school girls competition.

I've always heard the larger ball referred to as 29.5

Anyway...

During an AAU tourney a few weeks ago Coach B, down by a
few at the end of the game, is yelling "foul him! foul
him! foul him!!!!" B1 finally fouls A1 with a big swipe
across the arms & I call intentional. Coach B is besides
himself, "how could you call that, he went for the ball",
all that kind of stuff. While A1 was shooting his 2 I
calmly explained to the coach that I thought by now
any decent coach knows that "foul him!" means an automatic
intentional which is why all the really good coaches I
know use a code word, like "red!" or "fist!" to avoid
the intentional. He got that George W look on his face &
we finished the game.

So if a coach yells "foul him" and the player legitimately goes for the ball, do you still have an intentional? We discussed this in our association and we find it best to call what you see. The coach yelling will obviously let us anticipate the foul, but calling an intentional every time the coach yells foul him is too broad a generalization for us.<p>BTW, I'm a George W. fan. :)

He looked intelligent?

Frankly, since this became an issue last year I haven't
heard many coaches yelling "foul him" since early in
the HS season. As far as I'm concerned yelling "foul
him" might not be an automatic but it sure is an
invitation to an intentional. That, along with the big
arm swipe and the fact that he got louder & louder during
the 10 seconds it took his players to catch up with the ball
made it a no-brainer for me. So no, I don't call it
automatically but I was kinda surprised when I reminded
him of the stricter interpretation and he looked at me with
that "it does not compute" stare. And BTW, I'm a big W fan
myself, but you gotta admit there are times when it looks
like his transmission is slipping just a bit.

I called the intentional three times in three different games because coaches were yelling, "Foul!".
If they are gonna be that stupid, I will make that call.
The three I called it against will not do it again, because, now, they are smart enough to know better.
mick

There is a well known girls varsity coach around here who has been using the code word "bananas" whenever he wants his team to foul. He keeps yelling "bananas, bananas, bananas" from the bench. Actually, it's quite humorous. What has happened since the point of emphasis came out in 1999 is that other coaches have picked up on this. Now, we have about 10 coaches yelling "bananas" at the end of the game. In fact, when there is a timeout near the end of a close game, instead of reminding my partner to watch for the intentional fouls, I just say, "it's bananas time." So far, most all of them know what I mean (although it is a little embarrassing when one of them doesn't).

BTW - personally, I think George W. is a few fries short of a happy meal. In fact, I don't think he could ref because I think he would have trouble spelling "T". Oh wait, that was the dufus who ran with his dad.

I have been on my stump abut POE's lately, but this is one that has taken root, and I like it.

If the contact is very, very minor or if it is a foul that would happen in ordinary play* I will let it go with a warning but anything else will get an intentional from me.

If you don't, it looks like you are playing favs.

I have had some dumb coaches yell foul then look at me wierd this year when I call it, but I also had a coach get pretty red arsed at his team for <i>not</i> fouling this year. It was a close game and the coach started to yell foul, foul. The capt. on the floor wisely told the whole team not to. To the layman it looked like a revolt, and the coach took it that way, but I thought it was pretty heads up ball. Too bad I couldn't have stood up for the kid when he was running his onions off at the next practice.


* For all those interested what I mean is a foul that would have happened whether the coach was yelling foul or not. If a kid dribbles at the top of the key for a few seconds then drives to the hole and gets hammered, I am not going to call an intentional unless it truly is. Why, because if it was in the 1st quarter and the kid did the same thing, he probably would have been drilled then too.

Brian,
For marginal contact with some apparent effort for the ball, I won't make the intentional call, if the coach is <u>not "advertising"</u>.

One coach last year was yelling, "Foul 'em!" and B1 went after the sideline dribbler, right in front of his coach, with a hand in front and a hand behind the dribbler so that body contact was made. I called an intentional and told the coach with his yelling, he forced me to make that call.
A bit later, the same play in the same place, with the coach biting his tongue, I called a common foul.
Point made. Although, I imagine the fans were wondering what changed my mind. :rolleyes:
mick

My favorite "intentional foul" story happened to me right after the season started in 1999 when the POE was just issued. Late in a game, a team obviously was trying to foul and a player just came up to the dribbler and pushed him in the back. I called the intentional. There was a coach from a non-involved team sitting behind the bench of the team that committed the foul. He yelled at me for calling the foul as an intentional. He yelled that fouling at the end of the game was part of normal coaching strategy and there was no need to call those kinds of fouls intentional.

After I reported, there was a timeout. I intended to ignore him, but he wouldn't let up. Remember - this wasn't even his game. Finally, I told him it was a POE that year and that we were instructed to call it that way because it was the rule.

His reply - "But you don't have to ENFORCE IT!!!"

That cracked me up.

I should have pulled a Dave by giving him a rulebook and telling him to cross out all the rules he didn't want me to enforce in his next game.

Of course, giving him an actual rulebook probably would have scared him to death.

I doubt it. He probably wouldn't have known what it was.

Slight modification...
 

Behold the power of the rulebook!

While we're on the subject of ball size, how big a set does Bob Delaney have for calling number 6 on Shaq in game 3? I agreed with the call, but imagine what went through his mind before he committed to blowing his whistle!!! Maybe Mutombo could borrow Cechmanek's helmet for game 4.

JeffRef,
I dunno.
I think I coulda made that call.
mick

Sad part is that Shaq is now getting a lot of media time
going on & on about Mutumbo flopping, not playing like
a man, etc etc. Who needs this garbage.

For those who saw the PC, do you have a call on Shaq's
initial elbow or on his running over Mutumbo going to
the basket?