Do you really think coaches teach their kids to play defense without making contact? Hardly. Good players know that not all contact is a foul, so they learn to play through contact. That said, they also know that they need to adjust their level of contact to what's being called on the court. If they play without causing any contact, they won't be taking advantage of what contact is allowed.

This is fundamental basketball, frankly.

Not in NF. Pick up a rule book and read it. There's only 10 rules.

Snaq, you just made my point for me...it IS fundamental basketball. So teach that...will there be minor variances in the way one crew calls a game from the next crew - of course. But why - as a coach - waste time trying to prepare for the way a certain crew will call the next game? That makes no sense - a coach should prepare his/her team to play the way that coach wants them to play against the next team and not worry about whether it's ref X or Y on the crew that night...

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You're scaring me again, Padgett!:) Any exciting badmitton or croquet tournaments lately? (We'll see if the meds ar working now!):)

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Adapting to how each crew will officiate is just part of the game, just as our adapting to how a team is going to play is a part. I had a tournament game once with a run and gun, shake and bake inner city team against a very set slow control offense team from a small town. We had to adjust every time up and down the court. It was tiring but it was fun. That's the game and that's what we have to do. So do players.

Funny you should mention that. I just spoke with someone who was associated with the croquet match I worked a few years ago and she said they may want to do it again next month. They're also looking at possibly putting together a grandpa-grandson basketball game.

FYI - these events are sponsored by a local Lions Club in a retirement community right next to my city (King City, OR). All the proceeds from these events go to the Lions Club camp for blind kids. I offer to volunteer whenever they have something like this going on. It's a lot of fun and a great cause. BTW - if they get the basketball game scheduled, I'll be looking for a partner....hint, hint.

For me personally, the toughest call is granting a time out. I've been bitten a couple times in my career on this one. Last year, in a close varsty girls game, I'm bringing the ball up as T with a 1 on 1 match up in front of me. I think I hear "time out" from the bench. When I finally have a point where I can look at the coach, he's just standing there. I ask if he wants a time out, he says yes, and as I'm getting the whistle back in my mouth, we have a steal going the other way. Next time down he got his time out, but needed part of it to have a discussion with me. It was his own fault for not being more visible or llouder so my partners could pick it up, but it was still a not great situation.

Though I don't always remember to do this. I try to tell the coaches to give me the TO signal or 30 - Full when I look at you in the pregame. In a close game you got to keep yelling it and calling it. If I'm sure the coach called a TO and when i checked, he/she confirmed it. I go back to where the ball was when the coach asked for the TO.

A side note to this is at a recent game. I had a coach turn around and kick his chair after the opposition scored a 3 point goal. I immediately bang him with a T, giving the T signal. Opposition coach thought I called a TO and his players rushed the court to congradulate their teammate. I'm trail 2 person and report the T to the table. I go to ask the opposition coach who going to shoot the T and his entire bench is at half-court. I ask the coach, did you call a TO? He said no, you did. No, I called a Technical foul. Coach: but you gave the timeout signal. Okay, I'm going to give your bench a technical foul for being on the court. So what turned out to be a potential 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 point swing in their favor. I made it a double technical, we don't shoot, POI, both coaches seat belted. Man was that coach mad....

This is why coaches ought to teach their kids to mirror TO signals.