First scrimmage

[A Pennsylvania Coach]

Back at it last night. I'll try not to turn this into my personal blog, but by sharing this stuff I'm hoping there are some things in here that the experienced readers of this forum can jump on and help me with.

Tri-scrimmage, V/JV, at a big school. 8 officials, two courts running side-by-side, with one V and one JV. I was early again, and there were 7 of us there at just before the start time. One of them is a 10-year guy, Preston, who I've known fairly well for a long time and he took me under his wing. When he tried to get interest up for three-man on the V court, several guys declined, preferring to focus on two-man. Two of them were ready to go three-man, so I jumped in.

This went pretty smoothly. I saw all the switches, and I was focused on the play in my primary. I got a tip from Preston to always make eye contact with my partners before every throw-in, and I got that incorporated into my routine smoothly. I did miss one apparently obvious travel. I saw something peripherally that I thought might have been traveling, but I was just turning my attention back to the ball from some banging so I missed it. Preston gave me a hard time about that one after, telling me that if I was on the bench I would've been yelling "how did you miss that?!??!!?"

A couple more tips I got from Preston:

On how to know when to switch as the lead: "Follow the donkey (aka big man)."

On how to appear even more engaged: "Keep moving, even if it just a step or two."

Stayed on for the second quarter and third quarters as well. By the second one, I was just instinctively moving to spots. In the third one, I tried to come off but one of the vets wanted off, and a second-year guy who previously turned down the three-man suggestion came on. I was actually helping him, moving him from C to T a couple times when he missed the switch. Also, in the second, I got another illegal screen (a really bad one out near mid-court--basically a hip-check) and went right to the punch. At the next timeout, Preston told me I should be signalling block instead of the punch, but I was pretty sure I was right so we asked a couple other guys and they agreed with me. I told him he could blow one call a night!

I moved over after that and did the 5th and 7th quarters on the JV floor with a guy I know a little bit. The 5th went pretty smoothly. I did call several more fouls than my partner, which probably isn't good, but I didn't feel like any of them could've been let go. I did miss a rebounding foul that I felt like I should've called a second later.

The 7th was the biggest challenge. It was the host school against the weakest, and they decided to work on their press for the whole 12 minutes (running clock except last minute). It was probably about 25-2, and we didn't get out of the one end of the court for a two-minute stretch. However, I felt like I nailed this quarter.

I'm starting to feel sharper and more in control. I decided to report all fouls and timeouts, even though nobody was keeping track, just to practice. I am still struggling with getting the palm up right away for violations, especially OOB. I just want to go straight to the direction signal for some reason.

Saturday is my last HS scrimmage. This one is my former team from the past three years, so it will be interesting.