A Tale of Two Games
 

I'm just venting here a little, although as I write I may as a question, who knows? Last night we had a 4A girls double header over an hour and a half away from home. The JV game was terrible. One JV team had some athletes, but they certainly were not basketball players. Late in the 1st quarter I'm L and I have a goofy OOB play that I quite possibly booted, that is to say, I admitted to my partners at halftime that I booted it. I was on the far sideline then bringing the ball up with my count when the JV coach walking parallel to me throws his hands up and yells how "horrible" that call was. He was no longer allowed to stand for the rest of the game. The home team had a player that obviously wasn't out there to play basketball. She was angry and looking to run over people. I think she played a grand total of 5 minutes in the game before fouling out. The game was pretty much over by the half, probably becuase I would let the coach do his job ;). In the second half the coach was complaining about a no call while I was right by him and I informed him that he needed to calm down. He began to complain again and I said firmly, "Coach I'm trying to help you out here. You don't have an assistant and you already picked up one T. You need to stop complaining for your own good." He didn't say anything that I heard for the rest of the game.

The Varsity game was a blast. I felt I had my A game and the quality of play was good. Both teams shot the crap out of the ball and both coaches asked questions, complained a little at times (they picked their spots extremely well) and joked around with us here and there. The visiting team crept away late and it was a fun game all around.

I guess if I do have a question it's how you get yourself focused in situations similar to the JV game? I have this happen about once a year where we are in the car for a long time, all of us after working our real job, and then you have just a terribly played first game.

In our area, V officials don't work the JV game before, except in extreme circumstances. Just putting that out there...

Lots and lots of beer my friend. ;) When I know I'm stuggling in any game, I try to find one solid thing and build from there.

I wish that were the case. Most nights here are B/G varsity double headers, but this week every season the boys are off for sememster tests(we have separate athletic associations for boys and girls) so we ended up with girls games. When they do have girl or boy double headers, they bring in a crew for the sophmore or freshman game early (I think 4:45 starts) and then we do 2 beginning at 6:15.

Girls JV
 

Its hard to look pretty when these games are so ugly. Girls JV in general can get pretty ugly. Be prepared for it and just concentrate. I have a potentially ugly one tonight. My partner and I will specifically address this in our pregame that we'll need to keep each other focused.

The ballplayers make the game and there's not a damn thing that you can do about it. That also means that it's no use worrying about it either.

In one game, the players and the play stunk. And naturally, there is nowayinhell that the officials are gonna look good. Nuh-huh....ain't gonna happen. In the second game, the players are skilled and well coached, and that makes your job just <b>soooooo</b> much easier.

Tanner had the right idea. Carry visions of post-game sugarplums and brownpop in your head and just git-r-done.

Well said. We actually talked about that in the locker room. We had a team that could play and one that couldn't. Nobody is going to make that look good. Unfortunately it was a week night and we had a long drive so there were no post-game beverages. One of my partners is in law enforcement so we never have any in the car, not that officials would ever have an open container in their vehicle on the way home. :D

This, to me, is a good reason why I get irritated when people complain about "let them play" or the concept of game flow. The players, and their actions, determine the game flow. If they have a crappy game, they will have little flow, because of their play, not the officials.

The girls aren't taking semester tests at the same time as the boys? :confused:

They are but every year some of the conferences give the boys time off and not the girsl. It may have a little to do with the time scheduling of our tournaments. I did have a couple of players (the girls) complain about sememster tests last night. Often during the first shot of 2 shot fouls I'll ask the player next to me (as L) how school is going.