Coach thinks he's in the NBA

[Mark Padgett]

Last night, 8th grade boys competitive game. Q4, A1 scores on an uncontested layup to put his team up by five with five seconds to go. Coach B requests and is granted a TO. I guess he wanted to diagram a five point play. They break their huddle and walk over to the division line on the opposite side of the court. My partner is standing on the end line holding the ball. He yells, "Black, your ball". I'm standing at about the division line table side. Coach B yells, "We get the ball at mid-court!" I turn to him and say, "No, coach - you don't". He replies "but we didn't advance the ball so we get it at mid-court. That's the rule."

I then tell him that is the rule only in the NBA, not a HS rule. He then asks me my favorite question in the whole world: "Are you sure?" I reply, "Coach, I hope that's a rhetorical question." Now here's the best part. He says, "A what?"

I realized there was no quick way to explain that, so I just told him that I'd been officiating for a long time and he'd have to trust me that I know the rules. He just shrugged and said "OK then".

BTW - his team turned it over on a five second inbound count and lost the game by the five point spread.