How big is the coaching box?

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by zebraman

Like I said Rut, the philosophy of who we work for may have a big bearing on how aware we are of where coaches are. I used to not notice coaches much unless they were screaming at the crew. Now I am very aware of them at all times because it is so emphasized around here.

As I said before, my State took a "zero tolerance" position and I did not notice anything different during "live ball play."

Originally Posted by zebraman

Our men's college meeting is coming up soon, but our assignor went to the NCAA meetings and sent out the POI's via e-mail already. Next to the POI about the coaching box, he hand-wrote a note that said, "zero tolerance" so I think it's going to be a much bigger emphasis this year. Quite possibly due to the fact that officials are doing a poor job of dealing with coaches who gain an advantage by leaving the box. The college coaching box is huge. There is no excuse for allowing coaches to make it even bigger, IMO.

Coach’s conduct is going to be an emphasis across the board. I understand that the Big East for example is going to crack down big time on coaches and their public displays of disagreement (holding arms out, jumping up and down and other very obvious behavior).

But to expect a zero tolerance application is not very likely to be successful. They can make something a POE that does not mean that everyone is going to follow it like you are suggesting. I remember one year Marcy Weston told everyone in a meeting to not call a certain move palming because all players were trying this, even though this was clearly apart of the POE and then elaborated on how it should be called. I would not be surprised if this coaching box thing comes with some “qualifying” of what is a clear violation and what is not. Even last year there was this big deal made out of signal mechanics only to find officials all over the place not following what was discussed in the meeting.

Anyone with a little common sense is going to realize there are not going to be a T on each coach every game for the first month. You and I know that is not going to happen.

Originally Posted by zebraman

There doesn't need to be anything nefarious about a coach stepping out on the court to gain an advantage. Calling a technical is not the only way to deal with a coach stepping on to the floor in their exhuberance. Ignoring it completely will certainly lead to bigger problems later.

You are right. But how do you know these officials did not deal with it? What where they supposed to do, stop everything to tell the coach to get back? You cannot show 25 seconds of a game (Can you tell me what part of the game this took place BTW?). We have no idea how or if this was addressed. All you are I are doing is assuming what the officials saw. And unless you or I asked them personally, we have no idea what they saw or did not see. But I have watched enough tape of games and evaluated my performance and others it is save to assume that official did not see the coach based on the action and where the official was facing.

I tend to like to give officials the benefit of the doubt for things that are really hard to tell. Unless the tape shows all officials and the entire play, I think for anyone to tell us what they "should have done" is rather short-sighted. Then again we all do not agree on many things, so this is just another disagreement.

Peace