"Do me a favor"
 

In the GJV game last night, there's an out of bounds play underneath V basktet. V1 shoots and the ball goes OOB. From C, it looks to me like the defender knocked it out, but L (who was right in front of it) sends it the other way. Coach has a minor tantrum then lets it go. It's the 2nd half, so he has roughly the same view I did, but from the opposite side (I was opposite table).

Fast forward about 2 minutes, and I have a foul on H, and I move to T for the one-and-one. I hear, "Nice job, Adam" from the coach. I knew what he was thinking from his tone, but let it play out.

"Can you do me a favor."

I put my hand on my whistle and step closer to him so he can talk to me.

"It'll piss your partner off, but can you force a switch so he's not under the basket?"

"Coach, I can't do that and you know it."

"You've got to switch eventually."

"Yep, eventually."

Play starts going the other way.

I'm not sure I handled this quite right, though.

Partner is a 2nd year guy who's doing a pretty good job of picking stuff up.

I think you did fine. The "Coach, I can't do that and you know it," is a great line. Second-year officials are not going to be the best ones out there, so if you say he's doing a good job, then it sounds like he deserves to be there.

If you did force a switch/rotation so that your P becomes the C (only way for him to not be under a basket), would he even know? :D

Coach wasn't concerned about him being under the other basket, only his own. I could have just switched and put him at T.

But, if I had done that, I would have thrown my partner under the bus. It also would have put him in the coach's hip pocket; no chance in hell I was doing that at that moment. Other than typical second-year official phantom fouls, he wasn't doing a bad job, so there was no reason to try to keep him at C.

What the coach fails to see is that an official not under one basket means that he also can't be under the other basket. Fair is fair, c'est vrai?

But you're bingo about the bus and hip pocket.

And, Oh by the way, you can't force squat as trail.

Even if you said yes, you'd have to wait till next time down the court at lead, then switch.

What he wanted was for me to actually run down and force a switch during a dead ball. "Hey, partner, go take trail, I'll take lead on this one." Would have looked stupid, been pointless, and thrown my partner under the bus for no reason. I would have rightly had my a$$ chewed by anyone there who knew better.

"It'll piss the other coach off, but can you force a switch with him...?"

I never talk politics with coaches.
Never.

How would you feel if you knew how much crap-talking about you had happened during your second year ?

Good night, ladies,
Paul

3 officials for girls JV? Luxury.

Many places that's true. Around here, everything (middle school, freshmen, JV, and V) is 3-man. My association has taken the attitude that if they want to get younger officials ready for V action, they should be working 3-man games and I agree. It's refreshing. :D

That's what we've done. 90% of our JV games are 3 man. Freshman and below is 2.

Which is why the conversation ended quickly.

Only did it once this year, because the girls JV game preceded the varsity girls and boys doubleheader we had, and the AD wanted all three of us to work all three games. Nice, but probably the only time we'll get that.

Alternative resonse:
 

"Sure Coach, as long as you're willing to go sit at the end of the bench, say nothing, and let your assistant finish this game for you."