Last week, I whistled a girl for taking the ball out of bounds because I thought the shot was not good.

Tonight I made the obverse bad call... Having in mind the discussion about what to do if the player doesn't step out of bounds but just passes the ball up court, I did exactly what was recommended -- but the basket hadn't gone.

So egg on the other side of my face, and now I hope I have those particular nasty little errors out of my system....

I constantly do this when I'm at lead. I see a player take the ball and start to run upcourt only to find 10 players are running right back at me.

Of course, I try to justify my actions by saying that it's good that I'm not following the flight of the ball from under the basket . . .

Huh? Who's running with the ball? You have 11 players on the floor? :D

Sounds like you're a little to focused Juules. There's no reason you shouldn't be able to see the ball go in the basket with your periphial vision. Or is it possible that you're standing too close to the lane and not wide enough? Perhaps stepping back a bit would help.

While the purest will not agree with me on this, my recommendation is to count 1001, 1002, while looking in my primary for after shoot fouls and then look towards the basket to see if it went in. Why, because I too have had egg on my face. ;)

Ewww, I can't believe I wrote such an ambiguous sentence!

Should read, I see a player take the ball, and I start to run upcourt only to find 10 players are still under the basket.

To make matters worse, the 11th player on the court wasn't in the book :D

Yes, I am coming to the same conclusion. It's a process of successive approximation. Too far one way (watch the ball too much) then too far the other way (too focused off the ball) then a little less too far back, then back the other way but less, until finally some balance -- which I hope is soon in this area!!

Also, I'm going to hold the whistle just a half a fraction longer....

Good idea! We can learn a lot form watching what the players do. If 8 players start running the other way, we know the ball went in the basket.

Now I know what level you work -- in fifth grade girls, there aren't a lot of absolutes!!!