AAU time again

[Rich]

Originally Posted by JRutledge

My point is the basketball games are not going to get cancelled. If I have a baseball game in the afternoon and it rained the night before, I do not have to wonder or make 20 phone calls to find out if the game is cancelled.

I also go to a lot of camps so I want to see some basketball before and even after the camps are over to work on things or just to see more plays. I just do not have to work AAU to do that.

Peace

I just don't love basketball that much anymore. I enjoy working the season and work hard on the court, but once it's done, I'm happy to work nothing but baseball till late August.

My dislocated knee caused me to do a little soul searching. I'm pretty sure I'll come back for basketball next season, but I'm still not 100% certain. A few months off between baseball/football (March till late October) and the following year is looking more attractive to me each season.

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by Rich Fronheiser

I just don't love basketball that much anymore. I enjoy working the season and work hard on the court, but once it's done, I'm happy to work nothing but baseball till late August.

My dislocated knee caused me to do a little soul searching. I'm pretty sure I'll come back for basketball next season, but I'm still not 100% certain. A few months off between baseball/football (March till late October) and the following year is looking more attractive to me each season.

I feel similarly about baseball and have for some years now. When the baseball season ends in May and when my last playoff game is over, I am usually thrilled to throw my gear in storage and not see it again for most of the summer. When I do basketball games, I do not have to clean all my gear and do laundry every other night to be ready to work a game. I really do not know why I got this way because I played baseball longer when I was a kid and love the game. It might be the way I work baseball games and the fact that every day I can work. Half of the games get cancelled due to weather or we have to change fields at the last minute. I also like the fact that all that running during the summer keeps me in good shape most of the off season. Basketball is just more of a challenge in my mind.

Peace

[Old School]

Originally Posted by Dan_ref

Had a couple of AAU games this weekend, including a 15u championship. I mention this because 2 players of the winning team looked closer to 25 than 15. But there it is.

Play1: A1 dribbling downcourt. The ball bounces about 3 feet over his head, he regains control and continues on. Parents have a stroke TRAVEL! TRAVEL!! BLOW THE WHISTLE!!

Stupid monkeys.

Play 2: A1 shoots from 10 feet out, the ball's in the air and there's a loud slap. Gawd knows who or what was slapped but it wasn't the shooter. Parents (other team btw) can not believe their own ears. HOW CAN YOU MISS THAT! BLOW THE WHISTLE!! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!!!?

Oh well, they both hate us. Stupid monkeys.

If you're going to work this kind of ball. You're going to have to step it up as an official. AAU ball is where we separate the boy's from the men, the real officials from the fake officials. Officials that say they don't work this ball is because they can't handle it. It's too hot in the kitchen for them. Now, I'm going to tell you what you need to do here but b4 I do that, let me say a few words about AAU ball.

AAU ball is some of the best ball out here. Parents who have the money or the desire to see there kid play the best talent get into AAU. You can best believe that these teams are not going to get on an airplane and travel to other states to play unless they got the best group of players they can assemble. The next thing is kids who are not academically inclined, in other words they would not make the HS team but are still gifted athletically play AAU ball. AAU or traveling bb is heavily controlled by the parents who are your fans and coaches. I watched a 12U boys game yesterday that was awesome. I'm talking 6 grade ball here, one kid could dribble the pill better than the And1 games you see on ESPN, then dish it to his player underneath the basket for a layup, that's fantastic(!!) to see at that age level and imagine if you are ref'ing it. Not all of the games are like this but if you stick around long enough you will eventually get some good games to work.

Okay, ref'ing an AAU game. The stuff you do for high school games is not enough at this level. You got to step it up a notch. The part where they say don't talk to the fans, throw that out. The first thing you have to do in my opinion is to get control of your gym. They don't pay you enough to listen to this crap. If the fans are way way out of line, you stop the game and you tell the fans you need to hold it down a little bit. If you can't do that, I'm going to have to ask you to leave. Be polite. More often than not, this will bring people back into prospective. I'm not going to go any further then this because if they don't do what you tell them to do, you know what's next. Another thing that I do that really helps me is when I have a questionable play like the high dribble and everybody's screaming for CARRY or travel, I'll communicate my no-call to them by saying NO and shaking my head. The fans and even the coaches see that I have a ruling on the play. More often than not, they're okay with that. What fuels the fire is when you don't see it. But if you see it and acknowledge it, they immediately let it go. Try that once or twice and tell me if it doesn't help. I do this in my HS games and once the coach sees I had a ruling on the play, they let it go. If you go the HS route and not say anything to the fans, you're making it worse and they get even madder and depending on how pissed off they get. They may wait for you outside. Me, I have to have complete control of my gym and I'm taking this control. I also work harder than most officials, even at these games. When the fans see that, I get a lot of lee-way and they tend to do what I ask them to do.

[mj]

Stupid monkeys.

Edited scrapper. Excellent idea.

[Scrapper1]

MJ, just a request, but could you edit your post to remove OS's crap? No reason to have to sift through it twice. If you don't really want to, feel free to direct Dan_ref's comment to me

[SeanFitzRef]

Originally Posted by Old School

......

HAHAHAQHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAH!!!!!!!
LLLOOOOOLLLLLL!!!!!!
ROFLROFLROFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Whew!!!!)

That was the best laugh I've had since..........

Where do you come up with this stuff??????

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by SeanFitzRef

Where do you come up with this stuff??????

This is why I just ignore his posts.

Peace

[Old School]

Originally Posted by SeanFitzRef

HAHAHAQHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAH!!!!!!!
LLLOOOOOLLLLLL!!!!!!
ROFLROFLROFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Whew!!!!)

That was the best laugh I've had since..........

Where do you come up with this stuff??????

You're welcome...

[Adam]

Allow me to paraphrase Old School so those of you who don’t want to read the whole thing can know what he said.

"AAU is the highest level of ball I've ever done, so I think it's the best basketball out there. Those of you who don't work AAU are avoiding it because you can't handle it. You need to be the man and show everyone in the gym you are boss. You silly high school refs and college refs couldn't handle it."

"PS Stop drinking the kool-aide."

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally Posted by Old School

AAU ball is where we separate the boy's from the men, the real officials from the fake officials. Officials that say they don't work this ball is because they can't handle it. It's too hot in the kitchen for them.

RecLeague Ronnie never fails to entertain.....even though he doesn't mean to.

As usual, real officials should ignore everything he says.

[Junker]

What are we ignoring?

[Old School]

Originally Posted by Snaqwells

Allow me to paraphrase Old School so those of you who don’t want to read the whole thing can know what he said.

"AAU is the highest level of ball I've ever done, so I think it's the best basketball out there. Those of you who don't work AAU are avoiding it because you can't handle it. You need to be the man and show everyone in the gym you are boss. You silly high school refs and college refs couldn't handle it."

"PS Stop drinking the kool-aide."

You paraphase but that's not what I meant. AAU is not the highest ball I've ever work but I have had some outstanding games there. Sometimes the best games are not always the games that draw the most fans or the most attention. However, you do need to take care of business in these games and if you got crazy stuff like the OP stated going on in your games, you're not taking care of business. I'm not attacking just HS or college ref's, that's the way you took it. There are more referee's working AAU and lower level basketball than there are in HS and college. Also, this is a business for quite a few professionals in the summer. I do feel that some of you college officials think you're too good to work AAU ball and that's ashame because the AAU and the players could really use you and your talent working some of these games.

[Old School]

Originally Posted by Jurassic Referee

RecLeague Ronnie never fails to entertain.....even though he doesn't mean to.

As usual, real officials should ignore everything he says.

Please define what is a real official?

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally Posted by Old School

Please define what is a real official?

Everyone else but you. Aka know as the people who own rulebooks and know how to read and use them.

Clear enough now?

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally Posted by Old School

1) AAU is not the highest ball I've ever work but I have had some outstanding games there.

2) I do feel that some of you college officials think you're too good to work AAU ball and that's ashame because the AAU and the players could really use you and your talent working some of these games.

1)

2) What do you mean "you college officials"? Aren't you the one that's posted here many times telling us that you yourself are a college official? Or were you....gasp.....lying to us?