First Year: First Game From Hell...

[fullor30]

Originally Posted by bc7

As some of you know this is my first year working HS basketball. Well today I had the dreaded game from hell. I have read numerous other posts about the same thing from many of you, but my game had me thinking about a bunch of questions. I hope you guys can help me out.

This game was a Freshmen Girls game.

First of all to start this game I had a bad feeling driving to the gym, not sure why, just did. Got to the gym 30 minutes before a 3:30 start. Sat around waiting for my partner who I know, and is a nice guy but have never worked with him before. 10 minutes on the clock and he is still not there. I call him (again) and finally get a hold of him and he tells me that he is about 5 minutes away. I ask him if he wants me to do conduct the pre-game meeting so when he gets here we can get going, he says no he wants to be there. That is just fine with me, he is the R, I'll follow his "orders".

He shows up with less than 2 on the clock, we have the meeting and away we go. We have a held ball off of the opening tip. V grab the ball and within a second H grabs the ball creating our first held ball of the game. We award the ball to H, and give the arrow to V. Was this correct?

Both teams are full court pressing which is leading to numerous turnovers, and a lot of slapping fouls by the home team. We are trying to keep things even, but it's out of control. V are in the double bonus with 90 seconds left in the first quarter. Obviously the H coach is complaining as are the fans in this terribly cramped gym.

We make it to half time with out more incident, and the 3rd quarter goes as smooth as we could have hoped. 4th quarter comes, and it just falls apart.

The H team starts slapping again and we start calling the fouls. Of course the fans and the H coach do not like what is happening. Meanwhile they are climbing back into the game and are within 4, after being down double digits all day. After my partner calls a reach-in foul on H, their coach starts screaming at him.

She did not get personal with him, or use any vulgarities, but she was going off. I was waiting for him to T her up, and he never did. It was so bad that I was trying to figure out if I can step in and T her up even though I wasn't the official getting yelled at. Is that appropriate? I didn't want to show up my partner, but something had to be done. I stepped in and tried to bait her into yelling at me so I could T her up, but she sat down when I got in there.

Anyways game ended and we got out of there without much more incident, but it was by far the worst game of my "career".

Sorry for the long post, but I had to rant about it. I have put all my questions in italics, any help would be great.

Thanks in advance!

Sounds like just another day at the office. A few things IMHO

Personally, I'd do the pregame without him. Stay on schedule, not his. He should be happy you cleaned it up for him. Sounds like he felt guilty he was late. It was a lower level game and it's acceptable to do such, regardless of who was R. You're a good partner though for calling him and finding out where he is.

They foul, you call 'em, forget 'calling them even'.

What ever you do, don't ever say reach in foul on this forum, I know first hand

Warn the coach to calm down, if she doesn't give a T, simple as that, without any drama or emotion.

Only bait when bass fishing. Good job stepping in to break up her ranting.

I think you did a pretty good job, it appears it was lousy game for both teams but not because of you.

[bc7]

Originally Posted by fullor30

Sounds like just another day at the office. A few things IMHO

Personally, I'd do the pregame without him. Stay on schedule, not his. He should be happy you cleaned it up for him. Sounds like he felt guilty he was late. It was a lower level game and it's acceptable to do such, regardless of who was R. You're a good partner though for calling him and finding out where he is.

They foul, you call 'em, forget 'calling them even'.

What ever you do, don't ever say reach in foul on this forum, I know first hand

Warn the coach to calm down, if she doesn't give a T, simple as that, without any drama or emotion.

Only bait when bass fishing. Good job stepping in to break up her ranting.

I think you did a pretty good job, it appears it was lousy game for both teams but not because of you.

Hahaha. I appreciate the advice, especially the "reach in foul" advice.

I definitely wasn't trying to do anything out of the ordinary as far as keeping the foul calls even, but when the H team had 12 fouls against 3 in the first 7 minutes of the game, I think it is only human to try and let somethings slide, and maybe try and pick one up on the other side. I know that isn't by the book, but I imagine the majority of refs would feel the same way.

When I said bait in my original post, I probably should have used a different term. I didn't say anything to her other than trying to deflect some of the
abuse that was going in my partner's direction.

[Adam]

Originally Posted by bc7

I definitely wasn't trying to do anything out of the ordinary as far as keeping the foul calls even, but when the H team had 12 fouls against 3 in the first 7 minutes of the game, I think it is only human to try and let somethings slide, and maybe try and pick one up on the other side. I know that isn't by the book, but I imagine the majority of refs would feel the same way.

I think you'll find mostly disagreement with this one. You start letting things slide based on the foul count, and you're really just asking for trouble.

Not only is it not by the book, it's not a good idea.

[ehcco]

[QUOTE=bc7;570931]
I definitely wasn't trying to do anything out of the ordinary as far as keeping the foul calls even, but when the H team had 12 fouls against 3 in the first 7 minutes of the game, I think it is only human to try and let somethings slide, and maybe try and pick one up on the other side. I know that isn't by the book, but I imagine the majority of refs would feel the same way.

Had a middle school game from hell last night. H team constantly wrapping their arms around players and creating contact while trying to steal the ball or just holding the opponents.

Foul count is one sided H with 9 and V with 2 early in the second.
H coach goes to table before the first of two free throws for V and says to me, I'm trail, the fouls are 9-2. I said to him tell your players to stop fouling.

He was asking for over the back fouls early and eventually got T'd for loudly arguing a PC foul against one of his players.

The fourth quarter took nearly thirty minutes to play. Ughhhhh.

[chartrusepengui]

Originally Posted by mutantducky

on the opening tip, a held ball you do a jump between the two girls who got it. Re-jump with new jumpers.

oh and on T's give a warning if you have to but after T them up. I learned from my first year that you need to call them if you have to and don't be hesitant either. If they cross the line T them up. I didn't my first year sometimes and it was a mistake but just learn from it and you will be better off.

Don't worry about a warning if they have really crossed the line. Warnings are not required. If you can give a warning prior to things getting out of hand - it's not a bad idea to do so, however, don't be afraid to just WHACK them immediately.