first T of the year
 

JV girls. T was on the varsity coach, a guy with over 600 career wins and a couple state championships. Early second quarter, I'm trail as visitor breaks press and goes toward hoop. Drive is from my side so I'm staying with it. Player has ball knocked out of her hands then regains it under hoop. JV Head Coach and the varsity coach (an assistant coach in this game) both want a travel--I'm in front of the bench so they are making their comments to me. I say "she lost it; can't travel without the ball coach" and the varsity coach answers "yes you can." I know he knows better and then he says "Where are you supposed to be on that one? Get off the court if you can't keep up" and I gave him the T.

After the free throws I went back over to tell the JV coach he had to sit and that was the end of it.

Late in the game the varsity coach asked me something during a timeout so I think he got over being mad at me. Final was visitors by 2 in OT on a last-second shot.

Thoughts? Quick trigger? This is a coach I respect as much as anyone in the local basketball community. I coached against him several times and while we were always overmatched he was encouraging and positive about my team and how we had been improving. Probably the last guy I'd want to stick if I had a choice, but I felt like the comment crossed the line, especially when I knew he was just trying to get in my head with the travel thing.

I'd've T'd him as well.

Last year, at our provincial finals, I'm doing a game with a good friend of mine. He ended up getting the Gold Medal game. A coach said something similar to him, and there was no T. The PTB made it clear that a T should have been called.

He sounds like a great basketball guy. If he's a fair and just person, he'd understand that you're doing your job and if the same happened in a game where you're officiating, and he is the other coach, the same call would be made.

Too personal to pass on.
Ya done good.

Some T's require a quick trigger. :)This sounds like one of them. :)

From an assistant coach?

Good T.

I think you shouldn't have said anything. Answer questions, not comments.

I also think officials shouldn't worry about Ts so much. Stick and move!

That was an easy 'T', don't know why you are even giving it a second thought.

Holy cow JR, I thought I was the only one who ever did that?!? I combine two contractions all the time (in informal writing, ie email). I've dubbed them double contractions :D It drives my lady and family nuts because it's difficult to read. You just made my morning!

-Josh

Good time to pull the trigger BTW. If I were the JV coach I would pull that trick on the Var coach the next game and see how he likes sitting on the bench :rolleyes: No reason to question a personally directed comment like that

-Josh

Great T. Sounds like the Asst Coach (Varsity guy) knew exactly what he was doing, knew exactly what he was saying. I'm not surprised at all that later he asked you a question seeming to have 'got over it'. I suspect he was 'over it' while it was happening, and just pushing buttons, seeing where you were at.

The one thing I would pick at... your partner should be the one to inform the JV coach about seatbelt (as you administer the throws). Don't put yourself in that proximity post-T for more abuse/altercation/headgames.

a capital offense ???
 

my daughter sends me emails that look like this. no capital letters. i guess that the shift key on her keyboard must be broken. my son's college roommate sends me similar emails. must be the same brand of keyboard.

This was my thought. Your reacting to the comments about traveling was the occasion of the coach's personal remark. I'm NOT saying his remark is your fault, nor do I think you were wrong to whack once he made it.

Better game management is to employ tomegun's tactic.

Yeah, most times.
But sometimes when a coach (an assistant coach!) misinterprets a rule, it's just a reflexive action to set him straight. And PACoach did that, straight and to the point.

Someone wrote something like, "No, I don't think before I speak. I like to hear it for the first time with everybody else." ;)

this coming from the guy who isn't using cap letters in his own post. sorry, just found that ironic. :)

It's good that you found it ironic, since that was pretty much the point. ;)

Is this a good time for a binary joke?

Sometimes NOT responding to comments like the ones in the OP will cause things to get worse, not better. On a play like that, I think PA Coach was right in responding with what he saw and why it wasn't a travel. Without being there, I think the Varsity coach was seeing what exactly PA Coach was made of - he pushed the limits on purpose to see what kind of official he was dealing with. He got his answer. Now when PA Coach does this guy's Varsity games later in the season, he will know what to expect. A coach who has won over 600 HS games knows exactly what he's doing in situations like that one.

Any chance to use the double-contraction . . . and I'm there! :)

worse are the posts with no capital letters or punctuation i'm an admin ona couple boards n ppl talk like dis all the time i rewrite in english 4 dem

I agree with everything here, except for the idea that officials should be responding to anything an ASSt. coach says. I'm going to ignore it until such a coach is becoming a nuisance, when I'm going to ask the head coach whether he or she has a question, and then ask him or her to get the bench personnel under control.

And that would prove my original point - sometimes ignoring things MAKES them become a nuisance. Sometimes a simple response can defuse the assistant coaches and stop them from becoming a nuisance. Not always, in which case the head coach needs to take care of them, but sometimes it actually works - just look at it this way: how would you like it if you said something to someone at work and they just glared at you and ignored you. Would that make you think "Oh my, I'm only an assistant here and I should probably be quiet now" or would it make you think "Geesh. This guy is an a$$." and then you just step it up a little??

That's true, but it's not my problem. And, glaring at people and otherwise being an a$$ doesn't count as ignoring them. ;)

That's what my wife tells me.

Just another day at the office. I'd casually whack him with the same emotion as a travelling call. If you didn't whack him, he wouldn't respect you. I think you were being tested and you aced it.

It's A Dirty Joke, Most Of The Words Would Be ***'ed Out Anyway ...
 

1011001, 1011101, and 1011011, walk into a bar with a pet 1001001. The bartender says, "I don't think I'm allowed to serve 1001001?" 1011001 replies ... Nevermind. You all probably heard this 1 already.

I seriously hope that you are not serious here...if by ignoring something you allow it to become an issue, then it most certainly is your problem. A quick, quiet answer can often defuse a situation and make your life much easier.

In 95% of cases I am opposed to responding to comments, however, there are those cases where a quick well phrased reference to a rule or exactly what you saw can defuse a situation. A quick signal of a juggled ball so as to tell the coach you saw it but there was no possession - just the same as the signal for not closely guarded, can let a coach know you are on top of it and get them of you back. I think the comment of "coach she lost it " is fine, I do not think that " you can not travel without the ball" was needed, too open ended.

The Whack was perfect and hopefully given with the same emphasis as a travel. Like others have said the coach was testing you. You passed. I doubt you will have an incident with him again. Unless he wants it or something goes heywire.

I have no problem a quick, quiet answer. I (still) agree that doing so CAN be good game management, and is consistent with the tactic of ignoring statements and answering questions.

But the OP did that, and the ASSt. coach STILL became a problem. Thus it does not ALWAYS solve the problem. And, as I said, at that point the problem is the head coach's, because I'm not going to argue with the ASSt. coach.

Thanks all. I agree that I should've just went with "she lost it" rather than the extra words. One of the problems I'm going to have is that I know a lot of these people, having coached in this league for 11 years. So I want to give them the benefit of the doubt and give them a little more explanation when I can. The guy I T'd was kind to me when I was coaching, so I'm didn't have my shields up when he fired his missile. I'll learn from this one however.

We have a mentor program in our chapter so I sent this scenario to mine and he said he thinks the coach was just testing me, and I won't have any more problems with him since I passed his test.

I did have a little emotion in calling the T, not quite like calling any normal violation or foul. I'll have to get better at that.

Not much else to report in this game. I started the 4th quarter putting the ball on the floor when the visitors didn't break their huddle after two horns and two whistles from me. They didn't make it in time and violated the five-second provision of the rule.

With the score tied and 10 seconds left in the 4th, home got a defensive rebound, and the rebounder trying to clear space to make an outlet pass shoved into the defender. I called the offensive foul (easy call, no complaints) and visitors got the last shot chance. They missed too soon, and home got off a halfcourt shot that was in and out.

Then with 3.4 left in OT, I administer visitors inbound backcourt sideline about FT line extended. Long pass is picked off, poked away right to a visitor player who hit a six-footer that was out of hand with about 0.5 left. I call it good (again easy call) and we hustle off the court with the home coach calling for a travel. No idea why, she just caught it and shot it.

Fun game. Today 8th grade girls shortly then HS JV girls again tonight, but this one probably won't be close.

Oh man, sometimes things can get complicated. I think Rocky is right, but I also believe we should only answer questions. Those two don't go together, but that is where experience - which Rocky has - will help. Getting in the habit of responding to everything you hear will get you in trouble. However, we can't ignore coaches either. A coach who is ignored can get worse in a hurry. Giving a T is certainly not ignoring the situation. :D

On a similar/side note, because of some situations at work, I looked up the definition of "Approachable." To sum things up, people and/or coaches who are quick to say someone isn't approachable are more than likely wrong, but also somewhat of a coward for not accepting possible responsibility for the problem with communication. Does that fact change people from using this? No, but now I know what I'm dealing with. Again, this happened because of a situation I had with 500+ young men and women at work.

She hopped to set her feet [like girls do]. :cool:

Hey! Don't you start!;)

T or not to T
 

So you gave a T to the Varsity coach during a JV game, then answered his questions during a time out? Varsity coach is bench personnel. Address JV coaches questions only, and advise him on his bench assistants before whacking them.

Good grief. hy is everyone so bent on not letting assistant coaches ask a question. If it's polite, answer them...if they're pissing and whining, then take care of business. I just do not understand why some in our profession are so quick to slam the door on assistant coaches when all they are doing is asking a question. Anyone ever hear the old "You can catch more flies with honey" bit?:rolleyes:

Not only that, but it's never a good idea to make unnecessarily bad impressions on varsity coaches.

So I should've ignored his quiet and respectful "This is a 30?" and "We're getting it right here, right?" while I marked the spot of the throw-in about ten feet away from him? :confused:

Don't ignore. Whack-a-mole time, baby! [sarcasm mark for Lord Byron>

No...a resonable question ALWAYS receives a reasonable response. I don't give a rat's *** whether it's the head coach, the assistant coach, the trainer - if they are polite and ask a question during a dead ball time, answer it. There's no excuse for being an a$$ just because the other person isn't the head coach.

Yep -- unless and until the questions become too numerous.

Same with players -- I will talk to any player who is polite, whether s/he is the captain. And, if s/he is not polite, then it doesn't matter that s/he is the captain. ;)

I circle the captains names in the book and ask them if we are ready to start the game (when lined up for the jump -- at least that used to be in the mechanics manual - no idea if it still is and I'm not looking now) and then promptly forget who the captains are after that. What Bob said.

I am going to agree with Rockyroad on this. The explanation given in the original post was fine. He was just trying to communicate and give a coach a better understanding of what took place. The coach didn't like the statement and stepped over the line. He was penalized accordingly. Fine.

Asst coaches sometimes say things that cause problems during the course of a game. They also have an interest in the outcome and can react (appropriately) to plays.

I have used asst coaches to help in some situations. In my area there is a coach in particular that for some reason he and I have a hard time working with each other. If he and I are having trouble communicating, I will say a couple of words to the asst to be relayed and that helps in most situations. An asst coach can be an asset if used properly, so why not take advantage of them.