And I thought I had seen it all!
 

I'm always amazed and amused at some of the situations you folks post from time to time and was starting to think I sure have a lot of no real excitement/incident free/straight forward games. That all changed with a game I had last night.

Two christian schools - Girls varsity - two whisle crew - 1st thru 3rd quarters visitors are pretty much having their way and most of the fouls have been called on the home team. In the 4th quarter with about 3 minutes left in the game things start to go down hill.

There is a scrum following a missed shot on the home end of the court, and from trail I call a foul after seeing a home player giving a visiting player a two handed push to the torso. I move in on the players after making the call because I see players not clearing and some jawing going on. Home team player on whom the foul was called is exclaiming "She was holding me, she was holding me". I pass the home team coach on the way to reporrt the foul, and he tells me "that's the dirtest play I have ever seen in basketball and you missed it". I asked the coach what he saw, and he says "#23 grabbed my girls boobs with both hands and just pulled". I had no reason to doubt him because of the players reactions after the stoppage of play, but seeing the play from behind, I may have missed the first foul and called the retaliation. (Memo to self: Get more angle on rebounding plays)

Play resumes with visitors shooting a 1 and 1 as a result of the foul I have just called and a missed shot is controlled by the home team. Home brings the ball up court and takes a shot - the ball rebounds off the rim and a foul is called on the visitors. There is another quick altercation but the players clear quickly and I can't tell who the instigator is, so I let it go as my partner talks to all involved.

A new player (a very large new player) for the home team who has not been in the game to this point enters the court and during the resumed play is fouled. As she is heading to the free throw line, someone in the home stands yells something encouraging to her, and she responds by yelling something I did not understand back to them. I walk to the free throw line and calmly tell the player she can not in any circumstances respond to or play to the crowd. She says ok and shoots - ball bounces off rim, is hit out of bounds by home and is awarded to visitors.

Home coach calls a time out with 58 seconds left in the game and tells me he has lost the game, doesn't want any of his players hurt, and will drop into a non-defensive zone or just hold the ball if he gets it, and wants the opposing coach to know it. Both coaches come to the table and home coach tells the visiting coach the same thing.

We resume with the throw-in - visitors bring the ball up-court and just hold it. - home team stays put and we wait for the horn to sound ending the game.


With 28 seconds left the home player with whom I just had the conversation with about playing to the crowd does a beautifully executed front summersault and lands with both hands outstretched to the stands, much to the delight of the crowd and amazement of everyone.

It takes about a second for me to gather my thoughts and access a technical foul for unsportsman like conduct for making a travisty of the game. I explained it to the coach who knew I had already warned her and he simply nodded.

After the shot for the technical, and a throw-in for the visitors, the ball was held for the remaining time and my partner and I didn't waste any time getting off the court.

Now I feel like a real contributor to the forum with two storys from one game.

Anybody have anything like this happen before?

Is this serious? If so, I don't even know where to start.

BUT ITS NOT OVER YET! lol
Are we having fun yet???:D

It actually happened last night and I don't know whether to laugh because of what hapened or cry because we somehow lost control of a game in the waning moments. I did not sleep well last night just going back over and over those last few minutes.

Probably several lessons to learn here. These are just my opinions based on what I read. I wasn't there. Take this for what it's worth.

First of all, don't take it all on yourself. It takes a crew to manage a game. Not just one official. We celebrate success as a team and we suffer mistakes as a team.

Second of all, a school being "Christian" means nothing. Just because the parents send their kids to a Christian school, don't expect the game (or the kids) to be well-behaved. Even if Christians were better behaved, some parents send their delinquent kids to a Christian school to try to reform them. Don't fall into the trap of believing that Christian school games will be more controlled.

Blow-outs are tough to manage. One team is frustrated and the other team might be bored (or they might be frustrated too because they wanted a challenge). We need to heighten our awareness in these games, not let our guard down. You might need to get together with your partner(s) and say, "we're going to call everything for the next 2 minutes until we regain control."

You knew you missed the first shenanigan. You and your partners have to catch the instigator in the 2nd shenanigan. If not, whack em' both. It has not bearing on the game (blowout city right?) and you need to get control back.

I would not have whacked the girl for the acrobatics. In a situation that sounded tense and borderline out-of-control, she lended some levity to the situation. I think I might have laughed and applauded too. You ignored or missed more serious things, why whack her? But that is just me.

Only one? :confused:

I'm not sure if this was a good idea, especially in light of the somersault. It seems like this might have been where you gave away your control. But I don't know that's right. Just wondering?

You're sharp today - New meds?

I would not have whacked the girl for the acrobatics. In a situation that sounded tense and borderline out-of-control, she lended some levity to the situation. I think I might have laughed and applauded too. You ignored or missed more serious things, why whack her? But that is just me.[/QUOTE]

Post game I told my partner I probably would not have wacked her if not for the fact she had already been warned.

This has to be the basketball officials version of dear Penthouse Forum.

I'm just sitting here waiting for the thread to get around to how to handle the "grabbing" incident. (ahem, no pun intended)

We need video!

Post game I told my partner I probably would not have wacked her if not for the fact she had already been warned.[/quote]

She didn't do anything against the rules unless what she said was itself unsportsmanlike...and that's unlikely since it involved her own team's fans. I would not have even warned her....definitely no T for the sommersault.

I come down on the "Justified T" side here: 1. She obviously pulled the stunt to elicit a crowd reaction and call attention to herself. 2. She had been warned previously 3. Last time I checked, a somersault didn't have much value in terms of basketball (unless maybe you're a Globetrotter) so I would conclude she WAS making a travesty of the game. Maybe she'll think twice next time, if nothing else.

I agree. We definitely need a video replay to make a ruling.

Sommersault = Leaving the floor for an unauthorized reason. Violation.:D

She didn't do anything against the rules unless what she said was itself unsportsmanlike...and that's unlikely since it involved her own team's fans. I would not have even warned her....definitely no T for the sommersault.[/QUOTE]

After re-reading rule 10, I see that inciting the crowd is listed in the bench technical rule (10-4) and not in the player technical section (10-3). I stand corrected on that point.

If you truly believe that it was a travesty of the game, then the appropriate penalty is not a technical foul.

You're joking, right?

I do think the original thought of a "travesty" isn't a bad one, and if you want to end the game right then and there -- no forfeit, no suspension, just game over, especially given what the coach had said -- that would be fine. So if you want to avoid the T and end the game, that's fine. Otherwise, you don't have a choice here. You WILL lose control if you don't.

I've said it before on here and it may have been misunderstood: if there is ANY justification for a T, you can always support that call and you should likely err, especially in a blowout game, on the side of the T. In other words, you err on the side of giving one rather than not giving one. I know a lot of successful officials who have been or still are "red-***" officials. They'll serve up a T for someone looking at them wrong. Other than maybe a few road bumps here and there, this attitude hasn't overly hurt their career. Whether you want to be a red-*** or not, a T in this situation can easily be supported later.

Unfortunately, I speak from bad experiences in this area. Trust me: give the T or end the game.

I got into the habit of easing up on things when it was a blow out. Early last season I got tired of having my decently officiated games turn into train wrecks cause i lightened up on the whistle the last couple of minutes of a game. Now I officiate to the end. And probably to no one's surprise my train wrecks have been almost non-existent. Do I still have games where things are on the edge of tilting ? Of course but NOT because I was easing up on my whistle.



Does "red-***" = hard-*** ?

Or do we have some kinda Texas thing going on ?

So? That alone is certainly not a reason for a T. The team was down and effectively conceding the game. Nothing she did was taunting or disrespectful to anyone. It was a moment to smile at.

For saying some unknown words to a supporter of her own team. If you don't know what was said, this seems really overly officious. Perhaps they were making pizza arrangement for after the game.
That is hardly a travesty...I'm sure the winning team found it at least amusing. A travesty is when a team does something like repeated violating on purpose as if to protest or other such actions...not doing something goofy when the game is essentially over.

"Coaches, could we just agree to shorten the quarter by 58 seconds?"

A great time to utilize 5-5-3.

Would have saved you some headache.