Can you believe coach asked me this? Part II

[eastcoastref]

I got one along the same lines ...

Grammar school game. One team is up by about 16 points and then the losing team cuts it to 6 or 7 with about 5 minutes left. With the losing team playing zone, the winning team smartly pulls it out and has the point guard hold the ball on his hip just inside halfcourt, to try to get the losing team to change to man-to-man.

Problem, however, is that the losing team's coach doesn't tell his kids to come out of the zone and the kid with the ball just stands there. After about a minute goes off the clock, the losing team's coach yells over to me, "How long you gonna let him stand there?"

To which I replied, the real question coach, is, "How long are YOU going to let him stand there?"

After about another minute when off the clock, he finally realized his team had to come out and play defense.

[LarryS]

I was working a boys JV game last week when the just about the same thing happened...except the second quarter had just started. Home team was up by 4 and the visitors were really packing the zone in the lane area. A1 just stood there holding the ball for about a minute and a half. The coach asked my partner the same question...my partner told him "Coach, he can stand there the whole period as far as I'm concerned." Coach just grunted "Huh?" Partner then told him "Now my opinion will change if your guys ever decide to go out and gaurd him."

We had a little chuckle over that at half time.

[WhistlesAndStripes]

This reminds me of a situation I had a couple weeks ago. Home team is up 3 with about 3 minutes to go before halftime. They spread the offense and the point guard holds the ball at mid court. One of the defenders starts to come out to guard him, and the V coach gets up and tells his players to get back. Home team has 2 other guys spread wide near the top, and they make a couple little passes in the interim, but no serious defensive pressure is applied. I was Trail on the side opposite the table, and I couldn't help but just spit my whistle out and start laughing a bit. With about 30 seconds left on the clock, one of the guys on the wing throws a pass back to the guy in the middle. Pass is a bit high, goes off the player's shoulder, into the backcourt, and out of bounds on my line. I had to hurry and throw my whistle back in to make the call. It was pretty damn funny though.

I still haven't decided who I was laughing at, the home team for stalling that long with only a 3 point lead going into HALFTIME, or the visitors for not playing defense on it. Funny $hit though.

[Dribble]

A few years ago when I was coaching (and knowing the rules from a reffing background) I'd teach a delay. Coaches would be so much more effective if they actually learned the rules! They'd know ways to find loopholes to win some games they might not otherwise!

[Texas Aggie]

I don't remember when the eliminated the lack of action rule (sometime around 1990), but be glad you don't have to work under that. Few officials knew the rule very well, and almost no coaches did. When you thought about the concept it wasn't that hard, but when you read the rule, you said, "huh?" Or at least I did my first year.

Had two games where it came up. Screwed the first one up, but not too bad. About a minute went off the clock before I realized I was "requiring" the wrong team to "play." Later in the year, it came up against. This time I was lead and I knew the rule inside out after my first goof. My partner knew it about as well as I did on my goof, so we quickly switched during a live ball.

If a coach asks that question, point to the clock and say, "that long; there's no rule infraction by them doing this."

[Stripes33]

I had a varsity boys game this year where the visiting team won 21-15. They stood and held the ball 16 minutes of the game. I couldn't believe the home team refused to come out and force the action. Fans started filing out in the second quarter. Easy money but I was sure wishing we had a shot clock that night.

[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

Ah, how I remember the days of Lack of Sufficient Action.

MTD, Sr.