What do you think about this?

[Rich]

Originally Posted by tomegun

It takes time to understand on the fly what plays can be seen by certain officials, but this is a valuable skill to catch some plays in certain situations. However, in this play the Lead had the traveling and the C mysteriously looked past matchups to "catch" this call on-ball.

You might not have a problem with this, but I will continue to say that unless this is a non-basketball play a double whistle between the Lead and the C in this location is not a good double whistle. We can say yada yada yada, fluff fluff fluff all day long, but it is basic ball-watching.

You misunderstand, I think. I think the C is the one who should NOT have this one. My point is, if the lead DOESN'T get this, where is the T? I can understand this, as this may be in a shared coverage area.

Well, maybe you don't and maybe I'm being too simplistic here. If the ball was always on the other side of the lane and never touched my primary, I'm letting it go and not looking over there. But sometimes the C/L share a drive (for lack of a better description) and I may see something as a C that I need to get and at some point the L is going to pick up something I may not be able to see.

We need video, I think.

[jdw3018]

Originally Posted by tomegun

This is my opinion of this post: it rationalizes ball-watching and virtually gives license for an official to continue doing this. I guess it is hard to accurately describe the travel play, but it was directly inside the lane opposite where the C was. It also wasn't an overload and the C had to look past at least two competitive matchups to call this. I don't even remember if one of the players he looked past were moving to become secondary defenders, but it is a possibility and he would have been clueless. Let's think about this people, he called traveling which means he didn't just have awareness of where the ball was he was focusing on the ball. The play started outside the lane on the other side of the court and the travel occured right inside the lane. So it isn't a big deal to focus on a play that started on the opposite side of the court when you have matchups in your primary? Like Rocy said, he is a ball-watcher plain and simple.

I will pregame like I normally do and stress what I normally stress. He knows its coming and I know its coming. It is up to him to do what he feels is best for the game. BTW, this is one of those officials who complains about not getting playoff games, etc. I wonder why.

Sounds like he had a couple competitive matchups, and in that instance it's hard to see why he'd have been looking there. I'll take your word on it.

That doesn't change my opinion that there are times C can see right through the lane and see a travel (or other violations), but the more you describe this the more it sounds his attention should have been in his primary...

[tomegun]

Originally Posted by RichMSN

You misunderstand, I think. I think the C is the one who should NOT have this one. My point is, if the lead DOESN'T get this, where is the T? I can understand this, as this may be in a shared coverage area.

Well, maybe you don't and maybe I'm being too simplistic here. If the ball was always on the other side of the lane and never touched my primary, I'm letting it go and not looking over there. But sometimes the C/L share a drive (for lack of a better description) and I may see something as a C that I need to get and at some point the L is going to pick up something I may not be able to see.

We need video, I think.

I understand you now and I think we are in agreement.

[Raymond]

Thomas, as someone else (I think JRut) said, I surprised that you are surprised that this still happens. And it will continue to happen.

I know personally the times I've found myself ball-watching is when my schedule has me jumping back-and-forth between 2-man and 3-man. Luckily I've become proficient enough to catch myself and adjust my eyeballs accordingly.

This season I've only worked two 2-man games and I noticed I haven't caught myself ball-watching in my 3-man games.