Great experience

[ChuckElias]

Finally did my first USBL game last night. I had a great time and enjoyed it a whole lot. Both of my partners were much more experienced than I was (at the pro level) and were very helpful. I arrived at the game site about 75 minutes prior to game time and we had a very good pre-game. We talked about the restricted area, defensive 3-seconds, mechanics, switches, substitutions, GT and BI responsibilities, and special situations in the last 2 minutes. It was very relaxed and conversational. I was actually not real nervous until we got out on the floor. There was not a huge crowd, but probably about 1,200 people were there.

Once the game started, I felt really good. In fact, our first screw-up wasn't even my fault . I felt good about that. I called a shooting foul from the C (slot) position opposite the table. I reported the foul and then went to take my new position as Trail for the FTs. But my partner just stood there like I was supposed to go back (and be opposite the table). Finally, the light bulb went on and he went to the other side of the floor. Whew!

As far as calling the game, I felt like I did a good job of keying in off the ball and I called an offensive foul (away from the ball), which my partner thought could've been a double foul. Both players were banging, but then the offensive player really lowered his shoulder and knocked the defender back a couple of steps. My partner thought I probably could've had a double foul a little earlier. He's probably right.

We also had a blarge call. Ugh. And of course, I was involved in it. I was Lead. The ball started on my side of the floor, right in front of the Trail. A1 drives from the top of the 3-point line and has his torso past B1. B2 comes to help. B2 realizes that he's in the restricted area and steps forward (toward A1) to get out of the area. Bang! I call block, b/c I thought that B2 was still moving forward when the contact occured. Trail comes in hard with the offensive foul. He wanted it, he was sure, so we went with the offensive and got it back in play. Unfortunately, I don't have tape of the play, so I can't review it. But I'm not sure we got it right.

I also missed a rotation late in the 3rd quarter. I should have slid from C to T and didn't see my partner rotate. So when we went the other way, I didn't realize I was new L. Only happened once tho.

We also granted a "9:00" mandatory TO in the 3rd quarter. Unfortunately, there's no mandatory in the 3rd until after the 6:00 mark. But again, not my fault!! We just skipped the 6:00 TO to make up for it.

My biggest concern was that I hit "the wall" mentally with about 5 minutes left in the game. I felt fatigued and was not focusing well. I worked through it and was focused again by about the 3 minute mark. But I will have to prepare myself better next game to make sure I don't fade out in the 4th quarter.

The players were very athletic and some had very good skills. The shooting was pretty good and we also had several fun dunks. We had a couple jump balls, a player technical, a couple of offensive 3-second calls, offensive BI. I also could have called a defensive 3-second violation; but it would've been against the team that was down by 20 with 3 minutes to go. I let it go. My partner said that was ok in the game situation. Same situation with 3 minutes to go in the 1st quarter, tho, and I should call it.

Overall, I think I held my own pretty well. There's certainly a lot for me to work on; particularly court awareness and identifying the competetive matchups. But I felt as though I did the basics very well.

Biggest disappointment was that we didn't shake the coaches' hands. So I didn't get to say hi to Kareem. I don't think he was feeling well anyway. He didn't look like he wanted to be there, didn't say much, and left the court immediately after the game without giving any autographs or talking to anyone.

Other than that, I absolutely loved it. I'm now really disappointed that I'll only be doing one more game. Thanks for letting me share.

Chuck