Boys frosh tonight. The second half of a JV/Frosh double header. Visitors getting beaten by 20 and a little over 2:00 minutes left in the game. I'm lead and positioned wide as a swing pass to A1 comes into my primary behind the three point line.

A1 shoots and B1 gets ball then gets arm.

No call.

The resulting scramble for the loose ball ends up OB off A2. Visiting coach goes nuts, can't believe I didn't call a shooting foul.

Coach: "How is that not a foul?"
Me: "He got ball first."
Coach: "No he didn't, that's a foul."
Me: "....."
Coach: (following me up the court as I officiate the inbounds and subsequent play) "blah...blah...blah"
Me: "That's enough coach...(stop sign)."
Coach: (Out of his box by now) "blah...blah...you s&*%."
Me: Whack.

Question. When you have a team that is being outplayed and loosing soundly do you give them that call?

Even more importantly...Do you call contact after the ball is blocked?

Good question. I bet you wish you had. ;) Normally no, but sometimes you throw the coach a bone if he's just sat there taking his beating like a man.

If you get my meaning.

Depends.

Contact on the arm as you described it...no.

Body contact that is a result of the block attempt...depends on how hard.

If B1 had no angle to get the block without subsequently crushing A1, I'll call the foul. B1 only got the block through a play that resulting in a lot of contact.

If A1 is off balance and B1 nudges A1 such that A1 falls, no call. B1's contact was not the reason A1 went down...incidental contact.

Four words: Protect the airborne shooter.

Difficult to believe that that was the only call all night that had the coach upset enough to follow you up court to get a T. Sounds like you might have thrown a "bone" with a call - 20 point game, time winding down, he's getting drubbed; I can see where he might be frustrated.

Usually it's not a single call that incites a coach or crowd - it's typically "the last straw' in a series of seemingly little things. Travel or not, moving screen or not, hand check or not - in a 20+ game especially sub-varsity, you're going to get a bunch of those type judgement calls. Whether to throw the coach "a bone" or not depends on a bunch of factors but usually won't get you into trouble as much as not throwing the bone. I tried to "throw a bone" the other night with 0.2 left (timing is everything) in a very lopsided game and got blasted for "trying to embarras the kids"....go figure; sometimes you feel like a nut - sometimes you don't.

In the situation that you described - my philosophy is: "kill the loser with kindness". When there is a grey-area/judgement call to make - give the losing team the benefit of the doubt. You'll avoid significantly more bad situations that you will create.