First AAU of the year

[Scrapper1]

Did my first set of AAU games this morning. Joy.

Game 1 went OT At the end of the overtime period, White was leading by 1 with under 2 seconds. White had the ball for a throw-in. Inbounder throws the ball directly to a Red player. The ball bounces off his chest and is loose on the floor. Two players reach for it, but the horn sounds. Game over, White wins.

Red player is pissed because he thought he was held during the loose ball. White player is pissed because he says he was trying to foul. (I honestly didn't see the foul. I think it might have been behind the play, which I was too close to because I was stuck on the sideline.) Both teams are pissed and I have no idea what's going on.

Apparently, White needed to win by at least 8 points to make the playoffs. So they were trying to give the foul and hope that Red made one shot of the 1-and-1 so they could play a second OT and try to win by enough to qualify for the playoffs.

Second game, 3.4 seconds left in the first half. White inbounding, under the opponent's basket. They have to go the length of the floor to get the last shot off. Ball is inbounded, but the clock doesn't start. I count 3-2-1, kid shoots, miss, I blow the whistle. The clock is now running down, around 1.5. The White coach immediately points out that there is time still showing on the clock. I told him what happened and that I had counted it down myself. He informs me that I can't do that, and in 45 years of coaching has never seen it happen. I told him that I could, in fact, do that. At which point, he informed me, "That's not your job!" The exchange ended shortly after that.

Early in the second half, he kid drives out of control to the basket, throws up a wild shot and the other team gets the rebound. I'm Trail in front of his bench. The coach says, "That's not a foul?!?!" I know I shouldn't have, but I couldn't help myself. I answered,

"Don't worry about it, Coach. That's not your job."