2 of our very own on TV!
 

Administrator Brad and bball_junkie will be on ESPN U tonight working the 10PM CST game. Not sure on the teams but this tourny is one of the biggest and best national HS tournys all year.

I believe this is TV debut for both!

My money is on bball_junkie tossing!

1. Where are these games being played?
2. I see that the first crew (Yates is playing) at 6PM EST is wearing grey shirts.

1) Campbell Center in North Houston.
2) Gray shirts are the norm for this tourny. This tournament isn't scheduled by our local chapter, thus they can do that. Though most of the officials working are from the houston area.

Thanks. Just found this on the ESPN website.

• Dec. 29: Houston vs. the Nation (doubleheader), 9 p.m., ESPNU: The matchups have not been decided but Oak Hill and No. 2 St. Patrick (Elizabeth, N.J.) will play two Houston are teams. Event director Hal Pastner of Vision Sports said the teams will likely play Yates (Houston) and Klein Collins, two of Texas' strongest large school clubs at the 7,000-seat Campbell Center. The game is a homecoming for OHA 6-10 junior center Tiny Gallon, who attended nearby Atascocita High in Humble. Forward Quintrell Thomas (No. 88) and highly-touted junior guard Dexter Strickland lead St. Patrick. Anthony Jones of Yates, a 6-11 center, has signed with Baylor.

What's ESPN U?? Is it one of the regular ESPN channels? If I go to a sports bar, would they have it?

Julie they may or may not. ESPN U, usually comes with digital cable, and comes packaged with ESPN2, ESPN Classic, and ESPN News.

I know that buffalo wild wings in Houston has ESPN U on regulary.

Yea, well that's a little too far for me to travel. I'll make some calls.

Games fixin to start.

I get four ESPN channels but that's not one of them. :(

Thats unfortunate. You get digital cable? If so - check that.

I have the 4 ESPNs on Analouge and again on Digital.

609 on DTV.

Ace, who's who?

OK, I've got bball_junkie pegged from his pictures on his family's website.

bball_junkie (Brendan) (U1) is the tall lanky official.
Brad is the other tall guy (U2) .
The third (shorter) guy is Mel Whitworth. Mel's the one with the 'different' sounding whistle.

Okay, a little critique. :)

Good foul selection.

Good coverage. Noticed Brad dropped for Brendan even though it was his call, in his area.

Good PC by Brendan with under a minute to go in the 2nd.

Do you guys use two hand reporting?

Counts are a little slow. That's easy to see with the clock at the bottom of the screen.

Correctly put .5 back on the clock at the end of the 2nd.

However, the timer didn't know how to reset the clock to tenths.

notes in red

Congrats guys.

Mel reported a foul with both hands late in the 2nd quarter.

Mel Whitworth? He's still alive??

Just kidding. Mel's a great guy. Trivia: remember that clip of Larry Bird shooting that shot from behind the backboard that went in? Word has it that it was Mel, an NBA official at the time (obviously), who waived it off.

2nd half

The big guy for Oak Hill can jump!

Ok, nothing bad, I'm just curious. We never bounce the ball across the lane on a throw-in. We always rotate to that side of the floor and administer the throw-in. What do other areas do?

The big guy can run, too.

:D Brendan with the T!

I saw him woofing at Brad earlier that he was hit on the arm. Good call to shut the prima dona up!!!

We try to move to the side of the lane. Bouncing across is a Women's college mechanic. I don't have anything against the Women's game, it just isn't a NFHS mechanic.

Probably why he reported with two hands. Hmmm...

My feeling as well. But I'm sure other areas do it differently.

Great job, guys!

Brendan sticks the #1 rated player in the country, proving to us all that you don't have to listen to anybody! Glad it didn't turn into an OJ Mayo situation. ;)

He was obviously aware that he didn't have 4 fouls. :eek:

Seriously I thought that the crew looked very good. I liked the way that they allowed the kids to block shots and didn't unnecessarily penalize good defensive plays.

I watched it off and on. Well officiated. I expected no less.

148 on DISH. They have some varied stuff on there.

I get ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNC (classic) and ESPNN (news). I checked my menu and no ESPNU. I even called my son, who is a manager at Comcast, to verify. He said nope. :(

Good foul selection.

Thanks :)

Good coverage. Noticed Brad dropped for Brendan even though it was his call, in his area.

Don't remember this specifically -- do you remember the time in the game? (I'm sure you took COPIOUS notes!!! LOL)

Good PC by Brendan with under a minute to go in the 2nd.

This was the "hook" call, right? I had a whistle on this too from trail and the Oak Hill coach (and his assistants) complained about it! Very easy call we thought!!

Do you guys use two hand reporting?

No.

Counts are a little slow. That's easy to see with the clock at the bottom of the screen.

Yeah -- mine tend to be... I always use the clock for my 10-second count anyway... but for 5-seconds I am just slow (but always consistent of course! :))

Correctly put .5 back on the clock at the end of the 2nd.

However, the timer didn't know how to reset the clock to tenths.

If we had known how much time it was going to take to handle this we never would have done it! Normally you just tell the time to put time back on and they put it back on... This took FOREVER!!!

However, as you pointed out, it was the right call... I was opposite and had the clock and thought we needed to put time back on -- Brendan came in from table side and said the same thing. Since the offensive team had the ball underneath their own basket, it make even more sense to put the time back on.

Then the horn DOESN'T go off to end the half, even though it did the first time... And the 3-pointer that Madison launched after we put time back on WOULD have been good, because I look at the clock after he shot the ball and there was still time running down... I'm sure that would have been *interesting* so I am glad it didn't happen! :)

Ok, nothing bad, I'm just curious. We never bounce the ball across the lane on a throw-in. We always rotate to that side of the floor and administer the throw-in. What do other areas do?

We bounce across the lane in the backcourt only... Not always, but if the other two refs head down the court we will just bounce across instead of rotating.

:D Brendan with the T!

I saw him woofing at Brad earlier that he was hit on the arm. Good call to shut the prima dona up!!!

LOL -- yeah, you saw that?! At the next free throw he was not lined up on the lane, but standing near Brendan at trail... I was at lead and moved into the lane, got his attention and said, "If you do that to me again I am going to light you up real quick!" and Brendan gave him a few words of advice (If I recall correctly telling him not to embarrass us).

A few plays later he... how should we say this... emphatically told Brendan that he was fouled. I think Padgett is the one the says he used a word that started with "f" and ended with "uck" and was not "firetruck"...

Nice job Brendan -- whacking the #1 rated player in the nation!!! :)

Seriously, that kid is a great player... and THANK YOU commentators for pointing out that you do not get a lot of players receiving techs when their team is up by 24! LOL

Brad,
Could you please expound on the decision to wear the grey shirts? My association is having a little issue with this at the moment.

Specifically, could you state: who sanctioned the event, who was the assignor, who made the decision on the shirts, what other options were available or considered, what impact, if any, it had on the TX associations to which any of you belong or from the state office.

Thanks.
PS If you don't feel comfortable posting any of that info just say so. I would like as much as possible though. It would be greatly appreciated.

Yeah - Comcast is one that does not have it unfortunately... ESPN U is like the red-headed stepchild of the ESPN channels... Ever since another friend of ours had a game on there we have called it The Ocho (watch Dodgeball if you don't get it :))

Not my TV debut, but was my *national* TV debut.

Jus sayin' :)

Was glad to be able to work it... especially with Brendan... The first of many to come!!

Not sure who sanctioned the event... The UIL governs high school athletics in Texas, so somehow they did I assume. However, in Texas we have a separate officials association, which is different than most states.

The assignor is a local Houston official and when he started assigning this tournament years back (about 6 years ago I think) he decided to use the grey shirts... Basically it is his show, so he can do whatever he wants.

I don't really have a strong opinion on them... I think that they look good, but don't mind our regular black and white either...

We have kind of a unique situation, regarding gray/stripe shirts, in our Association, I think.

Our State Tournaments have been using grays for a few years now.
But, our association has been using the good ol' black and whites(Unless we went to the State Tournament)...until this year. We decided to go with the grays as the "default" shirt. In other words, the new guys would go ahead and buy grays and not worry about buying black and white. If we were going to officiate with a newer official, then the veteran officials would have to also have a gray shirt.

Where we are different, I believe, is that we can decide...as a crew...what color shirts we will wear. I have found that most of the Varsity guys are going with Black/White shirts. But, if just one individual wants to go with gray...then the whole crew must.

We usually tell our partners what color shirt to bring to the game when we make our e-mails/phone calls confirming our assignment. I bring both...just in case.;)

Thanks, Brad.
My state office has contacted the NFHS and they explicitly said NO to the greys.
We have a rep on the rules committee right now and so we follow the particulars. We don't wish to jeopardize his position.

I wonder if any group/state wearing the greys loses their representation/vote/rule change submission rights with the NFHS.

RD,
Where do you officiate?

Not for anyone I work for. Let me clarify, if you are going long, you can bounce across but if you're staying, you rotate over.

I think we should all go to the greys with collars. ;)

I believe RD is in Washington state, as I am. Our association has decided on using the grey shirt for all school games. Everything else we cover (AAU, YMCA, and rec league) we can wear what we want.

I have noticed that most of the new officials are just buying the grey though.

What do you mean? Are you saying that you do Women's college and if you are going the length of the court you move to the same side of the lane instead of bouncing across? I'm not 100% on the Women's mechanics, but in the Men's game we go to that side of the lane - NFHS mechanic also. For me it isn't so much about college, women's or NFHS. It is more about doing what we are supposed to do for that rule set. If they could agree on doing things the same way - not going to happen - it would be great.

Brad, did Steve assign these games? I didn't get to see the game, but I know you guys and I would expect nothing other than an outstanding job.

You are correct

Yeah... I don't listen to a whole lot from players and I don't care who you are (credit to Larry the Cable Guy)! The fuse gets even shorter when you are waxing a team by 24 late in the game. Sprinkle in two warnings (one from Brad and one from myself) and an "F Bomb" and you have what I think all should agree is a recipe for the proverbial "Automatic T"!!! LOL

The game is being replayed right now on ESPNU.

Officiating still looks pretty good.:D

Late 2nd quarter. There was a rebound and a putback on your side between the block and the glass.. Brendan was C, opposite. Two whistles, you dropped, definitely your call, no biggie. If I'm C, I let you have it so I can stay in the rocking chair. :)

Quote:

Good PC by Brendan with under a minute to go in the 2nd.

Yes, it was a hook, which are normally not visible to anyone behind the play, as the Oak Hill bench would have been

Quote:

Do you guys use two hand reporting?

Noticed it once from Mel.

Yep, I remember your whistle and no horn.

Most clocks, you would enter 0-0-0-5 for .5.

I enjoyed watching, even though it wasn't much of a game.

Officials wore grays supplied by the NCHSAA at last year's state championships. They will be mandatory in the playoffs this year and mandatory full time next year.

While the NFHS may not approve, I don't expect there will be any action taken against states that allow them. The NCHSAA would never have gone to them if that was going to happen.

Presently, we alternate the black/white shirt with the 4" inserts and the gray shirt.

In NCAW, the official (new T) can bounce the ball across the lane instead of moving to that saide and forcing old C to run "all the way" to the end to become new L.

If there's a TO, then new T is supposed to administer from teh "correct" side (not bounce the ball across).

You mean you wear the stripes in the 1st and 3rd quarters and the gray in the 2nd and 4th? What do you do for OT, go naked? :eek:

Of course, that's not a concern of mine, since I don't allow OTs. :p

The little used 'hybrid' shirt comes into play here.

Yeah... Steve has assigned this tournament since it began 6 six or so years ago...

That is correct...Washington State.

Some associations, in our State, have been all gray for a few years. We have two associations in our area...Boys and Girls...an official may belong to one or both. I belong just to the Boys association. We have sort of dragged our feet in changing to grays. The girls association has been grays for at least 2 years.
If an official belongs to both associations...they needed to have both shirts.

We had one individual go to a District game out of our area a couple years ago.
He just had a stripe shirt...the area he was going to had changed to grays the year before. ( I think it was Yakima, WA)
The two officials from the area he was going to brought their gray shirts....as I said, he brought only his stripe shirt.
I hear it didn't look to good with 2 grays...and one stripe...doing a District playoff game.:o

I always carry both...in fact sometimes 2 grays and one stripe to really make sure.