Question on inbound play

[Quahogboy]

Originally Posted by rainmaker

How old are the players in your case? I know that at the middle school level and lower, a lot of refs are pretty lackadaisical about the inbounds play when there's no defense. There's also a lot of new refs who are getting their start at these levels. I'm impressed with how you handled it, since a lot of coaches in intramural at all levels seem to feel that their next coaching assignment will be to be Bobby Knight's assistant, and they want everyone to know that they're qualified, if you catch my drift.

At the lower levels, I might do what the RM case play suggests, namely to blow it dead and give A1 a do-over. And if I'd done it for A1, I'd have done it for your player, too. But if I know or suspect that the teams have two or three years experience under their belts, I'm inclined to call this sort of thing, but that's just me.

Well these are High School and Junior High girls. It's intramural Church league so it's mainly for kids that want to play but don't have much in ability to make their school's varsity. There are some teams that are still pretty good. I know enough about the rules to know when something doesn't look right but can't quote the section and paragraph without looking it up. Makes it difficult to prove my argument with a ref so I don't normally push it too far. I try to make sure my girls have a lot of fun and win or lose, that they go out with their heads high. However, we try our best to win and the refs are spotty in this league. There are some good ones and some not so good ones. After the first quarter I can usually tell the difference. I understand the difficulty reffing high school games, esp. girls intramurals where you could literally stop the action with violations every 10 seconds.

I probably have it in me to do a Bobby Knight but I don't let that happen. I will question the refs and get an explanation as to why they called/didn't call something against my team. I don't think I will change their minds but if I feel they're consistently getting it way wrong, I am hoping that it will cause them to be more observant on whatever the situation is (ie: watching the inbounds passes and 5 sec count).

In the end, the other team was shooting a 20 footer at the buzzer to win against us, and I could hear the smack at the other end where my guard missed the ball and left a red handprint on the other girl's arm. No call from the ref. Do I feel that it should have been called? Yes, but I guess it was my turn to get the call. We won by 1 point. Would I have been upset with a foul called in that situation? Not at all. But I saw it as just another call that should have been made that for some reason was left in the refs pocket. This week it benefited us. Next week it might not. It's what comes with playing in this league.