The "And 1"

[Dan_ref]

Originally Posted by Jurassic Referee

I can remember ...when I was a teenager.

You must have taken really good notes.

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally Posted by Dan_ref

You must have taken really good notes.

And when I read 'em, I break out crying.

I missed the Sexual Revolution by that much!

[rockyroad]

Originally Posted by Jurassic Referee

And when I read 'em, I break out crying.

I missed the Sexual Revolution by that much!

Thank God for that!!! Can you imagine a bunch of little JR's running around the country??? Yikes...

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally Posted by rockyroad

Thank God for that!!! Can you imagine a bunch of little JR's running around the country??? Yikes...

"Who's your Daddy?"

Originally Posted by ref18

If it isn't a foul at 5-4 or 1-1 then I'm not calling it at 9-1.

As a newer official trying to get a feel for things, I'm agreeing with ref18 on this.
Being consistent is a pretty valuable attribute when trying to attain a level of respectability as an official. If I'm not calling a foul early on, I'm not calling the same thing late in the game just to even things up. If the foul count is way off, it's because you and your partner are calling them that way.

[TimTaylor]

Originally Posted by PYRef

If the foul count is way off, it's because you and your partner are calling them that way.

Or because one team is playing more aggressively than the other, or tries to make up for physically what they lack in skills, or.........

Officials that are doing their job have little or no effect on how even the foul count is. Consistency is important. We've all heard "don't call something in Q4 that you didn't call in Q1". I like to think of it a little differently - more along the lines of "don't let something go in Q1 that you would probably call in Q4". Set the limits early, then stick by them throughout the game. Any halfway decently coached team will adjust.

[SMEngmann]

I am with the school of thought that you need to get obvious contact and not worry about whether the ball goes in or not. I think it is an irritant to coaches, players and fans for an official to come in with an extremely late whistle when waiting to see if the ball goes in. At some point we need to make the judgement ourselves. I was told at a camp somewhere that the goal of officials is to blow all fouls on a "10." A 9 is somewhat acceptable, as is an 11, but anything before means you're anticipating and not seeing the whole play and anything later means you're indecisive.

I do think whether the ball goes in can be an indicator of what types of fouls you're calling, and if it goes in too often, it may indicate that you're calling too much marginal contact and need to figure out why. What I think, though, we need to avoid is the mentality that we won't call "and 1s" because this mentality can lead to officiating to avoid calling plays that exist, which leads us to letting too much go. Just my humble opinion though.