I wasn't sure where I would be working today. At first I was doing a military base-level game, then I was offered the regional final from one of the boards I belong to. My final offer - I was called and a message was left before the other high school board - was the Oak Hill/Montrose Christian game. I went with that game and it was all it was hyped up to be. Both teams have great talent but Lawson (Oak Hill now, North Carolina next year) and Durant (Montrose now, Texas next year) stood out from the rest.
Oak Hill led by 11 or 12 going into the fourth quarter and tried to take the air out of the ball. It didn't work and they had two turnovers late in the game (a huge backcourt violation was the final straw - I called it). Durant shot a three from about 24 feet with the score tied at 72, missed and his teammate got the rebound on the baseline. The Oak Hill defender knew he couldn't play aggresively and foul so he played good (safe) defense but it wasn't enough. The shot fell in off the glass as time expired. The crowd rushed the floor, the number #1 team in the country was beat and a great game was over.
The crew was good, but I'm a perfectionist and we could always be better. This guy came into the locker room before the game and basically told us to let them play. That didn't sit well with me because I only like to call the game to the best of my abilities. I don't like the all-star game mentality. The game developed into a high school game, with better talent, early and we had to put air in the whistle. I guess the teams didn't receive the same instructions we received. :D
Anyway, that is it (at least for high school).

I'm about to reward myself with some ice cream from Cold Stone Creamery. Great stuff!

This guy? :confused:

I don't know if he was part of the company that put on the event or if he was part of the television crew or who he was. Yes, we have been reduced to independant high schools scheduling, or being approached about scheduling, games that aren't just games, they are events.

Yeah, saw something similiar when Lebron came to Greenboro his last year of HS. Dunking in warmups, traveling that you wouldn't believe, etc.

Oh yeah, that was another thing. He told us they had some leeway and they were going to allow the kids to dunk in warm-ups. For kids that can dunk in a game, dunking in warm-ups is overrated. Maybe there didn't want to, but when we came out I might have saw one dunk.
As far as travels go, we had some. That part was about average for a HS game.

Hey .....
 

Tom, Congrats on your game, It was well deserved & I couldn't think of any other official who should have been on the game.

Not that this is terribly important, but I know the guy who started Cold Stone (lived in my neighborhood in AZ). Nice guy who had been doing it in his home for years until friends pursuaded him to open a shop and sell it. The rest is history...

BTW, it is excellent.

Why do they make them sing those funny little songs?

Peace

That's awesome. I thought that you might like this link, if you aren't already aware of it.

http://store.broadcastmonsters.biz/index.html

They must be too proud (big surprise :rolleyes: ) to sing on the east coast; only one of fours stores I've been to on the east coast sing songs. One store didn't even do the "welcome to Cold Stone Creamery" when we went in.

I have never been to Cold Stone, my wife & daughter swear by it. Guess I don't know what I've been missing.

Thanks a lot. I just ordered the DVD.

I was posting in the "Lost a Sneaker" thread and noticed that this thread from last year was in the related threads at the bottom. Just by coincidence, Oak Hill also lost just last night on ESPN.

Tom, you didn't have that one, too, did you? :)

Does anyone know the crew who did tha game last night, Simeon Vs Oak Hill. Oak Hill came out flat, Jennings didn't start playing until 4th Quarter, he 19 points in that qtr. I also noticed some of the calls the officials were reaching for the calls. I was wondering if it were independant officials or work for same association.

First off, congrats on working a big game like that. I'm sure it was a blast. Personally I don't think high school basketball needs to be broadcast nationally. I don't think its good for the game. There's too much money, hype, etc surrounding athletics already without putting high schoolers on national tv.