Officials and Development

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally Posted by Mark Padgett

A wise referee (no, not me) once said the purpose of a technical foul is to stop bad behavior.

Tell that wise referee that another purpose of a technical foul is to punish bad behavior.

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally Posted by eyezen

Then short of the coach coming out and tackling you don't be calling a second T on the coach. Get your thoughts together, let him vent, let your partner get him seatbelted (in NFHS) and get the game going again.

I completely disagree with that particular officiating philosophy. If an official sees unsporting behavior, then that official should damnwell deal with that unsporting behavior. That's supposed to be part of our mandate. Dealing with it might mean a stop sign or a simple "that's enough", but deal with it.

Personally, I'll be damned if I'll let a coach vent at me. I'll handle my own problems without depending on someone else to bail me out.

[Chess Ref]

I was under the impression T's were for punishing bad behavior. Along the lines of calling a common foul. Without a doubt some T's are about the official. But not calling a T can also be about the official.

Kid running down the court yelling at me in an empty gym. No brainer I will enforce the penalty that my Assoc. and the Feds want me to.

Is it about me-definetly. I'm letting all the other participants know that behavior that crosses the line,my line as forth by the rule book, will be dealt with accordingly.

It might be a stage I'm going through but I don't have much patience any more to run around after people trying to get them to act right. Act the fool ,there are consequences and it's not gonna be talk therapy, pleading and or appealing to said fools logic....

DAng Jurassic I just noticed you used my line. Great minds think alike.

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by Jurassic Referee

Tell that wise referee that another purpose of a technical foul is to punish bad behavior.

That sounds great if we penalized any bad behavior all the time. We do not, so that is why the statement started out with "If."

Peace

[TheOracle]

The higher the level, the smarter the coach. New officials are usually working the lower level games. It is somewhat scary that a first-year official is concerned about giving technicals to coaches for yelling.

Call selection is of paramount importance. Judgment will be the main factor in your advancement as a basketball official. As your judgment and call selection improves, you will get less resistance from coaches and players. That's just a fact of life.

When I hear/see a coach or player show negative emotion with respect to a call that is made by me or someone on my crew, I immediately ask myself several questions:

Does he have a reason to suspect the call was bad, either from his angle vs. the calling official or the consistency/context of the game? If the answer is yes, yo need to let the coach player vent for a short period of time, then work to de-escalate the situation. "Hey, I know what you saw, but we saw it from a better angle, and it was OK." "Hey, everyone knows you didn't like it. You made your point. We need to move on or you get your T. Make a decision." "Hey, yeah, we should have gotten that. We out here working hard and trying."

Does the coach want a T? Sometime the coach will yell loudly until he gets T'd, because he wants one. If you can listen to him/her after the T, you'll know whether he wanted it or not.

Ever ask a coach, "Do you want one, at this point in the game? I'm not sure you do..." How do you tihnk he will react to that?

In all these situations, you need to put yourself into the other person's position. For a player, they get about 2 seconds to vent in a non-profane way. For a coach, they may get about 3-4 seconds. It's an emotional game. If you can understand where their emotion comes from, and try and quickly address it, it heads off problems. Then the T becomes their choice, not yours. They made you do it.

Understand though, until your judgment and call selection does not lead to a lot of negative emotions, fair or unfair, that's where the focus should be. You can learn a lot by taking some crap, and really listening to the complaints, and putting yourself in their shoes. I cringe when I think of the calls I made during my first few years. And yes, there were times I should have T'd folks when I did not. But I will tell you that I learned a lot more from restraint and introspection about the causes of the negative emotion than whacking everyone.

Food for thought. Before everyone jumps on this, profanity or personal insults not repeatable in a business setting are automatic. Pointed feedback that may not be comfortable--gray area. When I have to give one, the entire gym knows why, because there is always the physical reeaction from the offender to correlate with the verbal, and I am never question3ed about the validity. "Hey, he made me do it, and I'm not happy about it at all." Think about it.

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally Posted by TheOracle

It is somewhat scary that a first-year official is concerned about giving technicals to coaches for yelling.

When I hear/see a coach or player show negative emotion with respect to a call that is made by me or someone on my crew, I immediately ask myself several questions:

It is completely scary imo that any official would be concerned about a first-year official issuing technical fouls for coaches yelling at them. That's a ridiculous statement. What difference does it make if the official is in their first year or not. Coaches aren't supposed to be yelling at officials. Period.

One of the questions that you should be asking yourself is why you've come up with a million excuses on why officials shouldn't call technical fouls. Nothing personal, but I'd rather officiate with people who don't overthink what they're doing out there. I'm kinda partial to officials who see unsporting conduct being displayed and have the testicular fortitude to actually do something about it. Hey, if you want to let everybody vent and coaches yell at you, be my guest. It's terrible advice for any new official (or any other official) though imo.

[Dan_ref]

Originally Posted by TheOracle

The higher the level, the smarter the coach. New officials are usually working the lower level games.

Agree completely up to this point. The rest of the stuff is what you have learned about how you (and your supervisors) like to deal with bad behavior. Let the new guys find this out for themselves without clogging their thinking about what they should or should not be doing to quietly address bad behavior. I say if you're a relatively new guy dealing with relatively new coaches/players then T early and T often until you learn how to deal with it a little more smoothly.

btw I agree with Jeff's post, I've found it pretty effective to pick up the whistle and quietly stare at my target if he's just hovering on the edge. But the target has to know what's coming next for this to work.

To the OP, sounds like both Ts were good. Betchya next time this coach sees you he'll think twice before getting too excited.

[Junker]

At a middle school tourney, any T is a good T. Nip it in the bud!!!!

[Scrapper1]

Originally Posted by TheOracle

As your judgment and call selection improves, you will get less resistance from coaches and players. That's just a fact of life.

What color is the sky on the planet where you live?

You get resistance to all but the most obvious calls at every level. At the lower levels, it's often because the players (or coaches) honestly believe that they didn't do anything wrong. They don't understand the rule or simply don't realize that they fouled somebody.

At higher levels, the players still truly believe that they almost never foul anybody. The coaches often realize that you got the call right, but they are working for the next call. There is a lot more at stake as you move from high school to college, and the college coaches give a LOT of resistance, even to the most routine calls. You have to find a way to get them to stop or whack away.

[TheOracle]

This topic has many layers. The better the judgment, the less emotional reactions you will get from coaches. Credibility also plays into that. New officials have to earn credibility, and good judgment over time builds that.

For the purposes of development, which is the topic being discussed, new officials should be working on judgment, as that is the base building block to game and people management. The more they can be introspective, and understand that for a coach to start yelling or throwing out insults is frequently the culmination of several things (judgment, calls, posturing, how you project), the quicker they will develop.

For context, since my "scary" description seems to have stricken a JR nerve, is that far too often new officials feel the need to be the enforcer, and draw a line that they won't put up with anything. Typically, actions that warrant a T by coaches have many precursors. New officials should try and understand these, and understand how their judgment, and they way they react to difficult/controversial calls, can either escalate things to a T situation, or de-escalate them. We have also seen the new guys that get off on giving T's and ejecting coaches/players. They brag about it.

I am unhappy whenever I have to give a T. I am very unhappy when I have to T a coach--it represents the lowest common tool in my box to manage the situation, and tells me that I was unable to prevent it. It should be the tool of last resort--the ejection handle for Goose and Mavberick from Top Gun. Where if you don't use it, you're dead.

My advice to new guys for the purposes of their development--use the T sparingly. Learn how to be stoic and have a thick skin. It will serve you well when you advance, and you'll be surpirsed how sparingly you'll ever have to use it when you get there.

[Dan_ref]

Originally Posted by TheOracle

The more they can be introspective, and understand that for a coach to start yelling or throwing out insults is frequently the culmination of several things (judgment, calls, posturing, how you project), the quicker they will develop.

Now I know you're kidding.

Every spring/summer I T & toss more coaches at AAU and "exposure" type tournaments than I do in 5 years of winter basketball. These are the types of coaches we're talking about here.

I am unhappy whenever I have to give a T. I am very unhappy when I have to T a coach--it represents the lowest common tool in my box to manage the situation, and tells me that I was unable to prevent it. It should be the tool of last resort--the ejection handle for Goose and Mavberick from Top Gun. Where if you don't use it, you're dead.

Geeze...Top Gun? wtf is that about?

Just wndering - when was the last time you actually refereed a game where more than the 10 players actually cared about the outcome?

[TheOracle]

Yep, I don't work AAU and exposure tournaments in the summer. Totally different animal. However, the best officials use the T the least, because they don't have to.

[Scrapper1]

Originally Posted by TheOracle

the best officials use the T the least, because they don't have to.

I just fundamentally disagree with this. In my first few years, I don't think I gave ANY technical fouls because I was intimidated. Are you saying that I was actually a GREAT official because I didn't give out technical fouls that were richly deserved? That's just silly.

On the other hand, the NCAA has practically given men's officials a hunting license to whack coaches with its "zero tolerance" policy. Absolutely any unsporting conduct, including gestures for "missed" calls, is supposed to get a technical this year. I worked a college game this year with a guy who works a couple D1 conferences and he told me he'd already given 5 technical fouls in the first 2 weeks of his season.

IMHO, the best officials are not those who give the fewest technical fouls. The best officials are those that give technical fouls immediately when they are necessary and warranted; and who do not give technicals when they are not necessary and warranted.

I don't know you and I certainly do not mean to disparage you or your officiating experience. But in your last two posts, you've made statements that are glaringly false.

[Dan_ref]

Originally Posted by TheOracle

Yep, I don't work AAU and exposure tournaments in the summer. Totally different animal.

And these are the coaches the new guys must work their way thru before they know as much as you think you do.

However, the best officials use the T the least, because they don't have to.

And if I said the best officials call travel the least because they don't have to your response would be....?

[swkansasref33]

I have gotten in to the habit of mens league of NOT giving out technicals in certain situations. I had a game, where A was down by about 50 points. The guy has been playing terrible, and is TRYING to get a technical foul, so he can go home. Seeing as how if I T him up, he would be happy, because he gets to go home, and I have to stay, He made a comment saying "Just get me outta here" I told him "No, YOU get ME outta here." and he shut up, getting the fact that I wasnt going to T him up for whispering to me. I dont know what your thoughts are on this, but thats how I handle those situations