Jump Ball - "Need to Get Away?"
 

7th grade girls last night, ready for the opening tip. Gave final instructions, blow my whistle, step into the circle, toss the ball up.......and see the ball get slapped right back at my face. I instinctively react by bending straight over so that it misses my face only to have the ball hit my rear end, bounce off a surprised player's hands who is behind me and back onto my back (I am doing a nice impression of a coffee table at this point), where it comes to rest as the players stop doing anything because they don't know if it is legal to grab the ball off the official's back............then my partner blows his whistle because he is laughing so hard. Oh yeah, the OIC is sitting behind the scorer's table to watch the action and us handle the game and getting a real tickle out of the predicament.

I end up re-tossing the jump between the original two while one of the coaches continued arguing with my partner that there shouldn't have been a whistle on a live ball - the official is simply part of the floor (I tried to get that low, really). Of course, no one ever had control so that was irrelevant, but then that was just the first of several "discussions" he started that night.

"Ding......want to get away?"

One thing I've learned in my relatively short time refereeing basketball: If you think you've seen everything, just go watch a junior high girl's game.

Wish that was on tape ;) Bet it was quite funny. Well the coach should have nothing to say, indventant whistle...Go to the arrow is nobody have control. Wait, there is no arrow from the sounds of it. Re-jump ;)

-Josh

got to love girls bball. Guys would have taken that oppurtunity to get in a free shot on the man in stripes. Where did this happen? I'm laughing on the inside and outside

That's funny, Fritz ! :)

Was your next toss higher?

Great story, Fritz! :)

True.

Perhaps it's only an urban legend, but I've heard that at the Big Sky camp the officials work Jr. High ball.

That's because they've already graduated from the, wait for it....... SEC.

Great story.

Good call on re-jumping, too.

Great story Fritz! Incidentally, my first game of the season is Friday night.......yep, JV Girls. I'll be on the lookout! ;)

I would have given you a T for allowing the game to become an actionless contest. :p

Technically, the coach was correct.

[QUOTE=Camron Rust;555146]Technically, who really cares? :D

[QUOTE=Camron Rust;555146]He may have been correct, but he wasn't right. ;)

That is the entire reason I said "Technically". ;)

Obviously. It's amazing how I go hard of hearing at those moments, too.

http://www.runemasterstudios.com/gra.../smilielol.gif

Thanks for sharing, Fritz, I needed a good laugh today. :)

And here's the rest of the story, as they say........

The reason the OIC was there was because one of the teams had a rep from games earlier in the season of being overly physical, bad language toward other players, and other general forms of intimidation (yeah I know, in a 7th grade girls game?!?!?). So he's there to assist my partner and me in case the coaches of that team get out of hand, or someone tries something that we miss on the court.

But after my jump to start the game, we kind of felt there wasn't any better way to get everyone relaxed and just play the game! Wasn't planned, but we didn't have any problems from the team at all (you know how rumors get started).

So put that in your bag of tricks I guess; want to diffuse a tense situation? find a way to get on the blooper reel!

I would've given that idiot coach a VERY short leash for being an @$$. Hasn't he ever heard of the inadvertant whistle rule? Since there was never a resolution to the jump ball....retoss. ANd then toss HIM.

See, I got my nickname "Mr. T" for a reason (plus my first name starts with T):D