Missed a big call

[Corndog89]

Originally Posted by wildcatter

I want to preface this by saying I'm nowhere in the league of almost all officials here!! I'm a student that does intramurals for my college, we run by NCAA rules, run 2 man crews. We've got some training - it's basic - but not all the fundamentals - in reality, it's enough to get by, but not enough to any time feel 100% comfortable. I always KNOW there is something minute that could come up that I wouldn't administer the correct ruling on, and it's the mechanics kill me!

That being said, I try to learn a lot from watching NCAA bball, am always looking over the rules and cases, and reading up on sites like these - and I usually don't miss HUGE calls, from what I can gather.

But I missed one a couple days ago - 7th game of the day (we run 1 hour games), was under the basket, 2 man crew - >10 seconds left in the half (we use a running clock), player drives into the lane, puts up a layup, and goes flying/tumbling past me. I don't call anything, and as clock expires, he goes ape crazy yelling all those words they dont teach in english class at the top of his lung, and I guess, whack, you know the rest of the story.

What bothers me is I am 99% sure I missed the call, and had to give him a technical for it - apparently from behind him, someone shoved the heck outta him on his back, and I was screened, and didn't see guy shoving him (the guy apologized to him for shoving him on his drive 30 secs later). My partner, on the opposite side, (I guess T for trail?), didn't see anything either.

If I can miss a call like this so easily, I know I'm probably missing other calls - what are some tips I can get in positioning to see the play in a 2 man crew? Are there any guidelines - like even where to stand on the baseline, or where to stand when the trail (or any basic rules of thumb to give to a pre-rookie)? We have ex-varsity big ten players on the court, and the level of competition is high - but I'm still struggling on what I'm sure are basic fundamentals! and even the attitude to have when I know I missed a call isn't the right one - it definitely affected the rest of my game.



Makes me just respect the guys who do this in high school and the next level even more!!!

Wildcatter...Good on ya for working hard to make yourself a better official. However, I would advise you to stop doing college intramural games, by far, IMO, the absolute worst games to officiate. Why not find your local association, join it, get real training, and start calling rec and lower level school games leading to future HS and higher games. Did I mention college intramurals are the absolute worst games to officiate? I called them one year and refuse to call them anymore.

[HawkeyeCubP]

Originally Posted by Corndog89

Wildcatter...Good on ya for working hard to make yourself a better official. However, I would advise you to stop doing college intramural games, by far, IMO, the absolute worst games to officiate. Why not find your local association, join it, get real training, and start calling rec and lower level school games leading to future HS and higher games. Did I mention college intramurals are the absolute worst games to officiate? I called them one year and refuse to call them anymore.

Don't be so quick to judge. It depends on what school this is at. I got my start in university intramurals. My Intramural Director was (and is) a college official and on the Board of the local HS officials' association, is an excellent basketball (and other sport) official, and takes the intramural officials' association and it's employees' training very seriously. I excelled at officiating intramurals (a baptism of fire, so to speak, to be true), and it prepared me (as we used NFHS rules and mechanics, for the most part) for my jump to the middle school, lower level high school, and eventually varsity, and my professional career - as well open my eyes to the aspirations I developed for working small college ball someday. If you can call a technical foul for the right reasons on someone you have to see in class the next day or down at the bar later that night, you can call a technical foul on ANYONE.

I am now in a position of authority in an intramural sports program, and take training of officials seriously (officiating's the reason I got into the field). There is a national governing body for this field, and the sports officiating part of it is professional, and its members, for a large part, are dedicated and sincere (and mostly aspiring, current, or one-time college officials themselves.) This is not the intramural sports of 15 or even 8 years ago, nationally-generally speaking.

That being said, it still depends, like I said, on where you are, what program you're in, who your boss/trainers is/are, and what your aspirations are. But if you can do well in a decent intramural officiating program, you'll be set to work upper high school ball in due time, in my experience.

Edited to include: Oh yeah - And widen out (get AWAY from the paint, if appropriate), don't watch the ball on the shot, and anticipate the play as the drive to the basket begins. (Anticipate the play, NOT the foul). And you're on the right track, as it sounds. You missed a call, know you missed it, but didn't take the abuse that was given. Good job. That's a start.

[Corndog89]

Originally Posted by HawkeyeCubP

Don't be so quick to judge. It depends on what school this is at. I got my start in university intramurals. My Intramural Director was (and is) a college official and on the Board of the local HS officials' association, is an excellent basketball (and other sport) official, and takes the intramural officials' association and it's employees' training very seriously. I excelled at officiating intramurals (a baptism of fire, so to speak, to be true), and it prepared me (as we used NFHS rules and mechanics, for the most part) for my jump to the middle school, lower level high school, and eventually varsity, and my professional career - as well open my eyes to the aspirations I developed for working small college ball someday. If you can call a technical foul for the right reasons on someone you have to see in class the next day or down at the bar later that night, you can call a technical foul on ANYONE.

I am now in a position of authority in an intramural sports program, and take training of officials seriously (officiating's the reason I got into the field). There is a national governing body for this field, and the sports officiating part of it is professional, and its members, for a large part, are dedicated and sincere (and mostly aspiring, current, or one-time college officials themselves.) This is not the intramural sports of 15 or even 8 years ago, nationally-generally speaking.

That being said, it still depends, like I said, on where you are, what program you're in, who your boss/trainers is/are, and what your aspirations are. But if you can do well in a decent intramural officiating program, you'll be set to work upper high school ball in due time, in my experience.

Edited to include: Oh yeah - And widen out (get AWAY from the paint, if appropriate), don't watch the ball on the shot, and anticipate the play as the drive to the basket begins. (Anticipate the play, NOT the foul). And you're on the right track, as it sounds. You missed a call, know you missed it, but didn't take the abuse that was given. Good job. That's a start.

I'm glad your experiences were much better than mine but, honestly, everyone I've ever talked with about calling college intramurals hated it. I remember playing college intramural sports and how ugly they were. The one year I called them was just 4 years ago...I hope the national governing body and its attention to rules and officiating you relate reaches the campus I called on. Thanks for the insight on the changes.

[dave30]

Just say, "I was blocked, I didn't see a foul. I can't make up a foul that I did not see. As for my partner, talk to him, find out what he saw. Missed or not doesn't give anyone the right to yell and scream at me, so I gave a technical. Live with it! I don't get paid enough for this anyway! If you can do better, bring a whistle and a shirt and we can work a game together!"