3 Ts on Saturday
 

I'm up to 8 for the season, in 84 games so far. 2 on coaches in HS JV games, 1 on a coach in a youth league game, 1 for a sub coming straight on to the floor during play, 1 for a name/number not in scorebook, and the 3 from this weekend.

First, two men's rec league games with my mentor, who also runs this league and assigns it and the CYO ball. Game one was smooth, but he warned me in advance about the blue team in game two. One guy was running his mouth the whole first half. Then one play he is at arc at FT line extended on my side, and pump fakes a defender into the air. In my opinion, the defender was still in his vertical plane. He jumps about 3 feet in to him to make the contact and chucks up an airball that goes out of bounds. I'm lead and I pass on the contact, as does my partner. Now he wants to talk to me the whole way down the court and caps it off with "I know because I've reffed for several years!" That was my breaking point. I pin him and the best part was it was right after the opponents scored. They hit both FTs, and a three on the ensuing possession, so it's a 7-point possession.

A little later (I'm lead again), he drives baseline from opposite side and gets contacted while still about 6-8 feet outside the paint. I can't tell the quality of contact as I'm peeking across and my partner calls a foul. The player walks by me and says "you didn't have that, did you?" I should've run him, especially since if he "reffed for several years" he'd know that wasn't my primary. I found out later he said something to my partner like "you have to help him out" and my partner flipped. He stopped the game and announced that the next guy who said anything would be tossed. That did the trick, as we had a peaceful end of first half, and second half. Blue went on to lose by about 10.

Over to the nearby Catholic primary school for a "varsity" level boys' game, which I guess means 8th graders? Same partner. Talent mismatch, and it was a quiet game save for this one incident and a back injury that held us up about 10 minutes. Ball going out of bounds on my line but in backcourt and I'm lead. I move back toward the play and three guys crash near the line. My partner has a foul. While getting up, one guy gets a little push in. I had the whistle out of my mouth or I might've had a quick T. I'm deciding between a T and a scolding when the pushee gets an "accidental" bump in while walking past the pusher. They turn and face each other with chests puffed out, and I have a double T.

Only question partner and I had was which positions we should take on the ensuing action. Do we switch for his foul and then switch again for the double technical?

Don't worry about proper switching when something unusual like that happens. Get together and talk, as needed, then administer the free throws, then get the game going. Don't rush, but just move to whatever position is closest and take care of business.

I had 4 Ts in one game last week. I don't think I've ever had that many in a game before (2 is probably the most). Players and coaches didn't want to behave: 1 taunt, one ball slam, one coach off the bench gesturing, and another throwing his clipboard.

Fixed it for ya'.

1) There's your first mistake right there. You never let <b>anybody</b> run their mouth for a whole half. Of course, he's gonna keep it up until you do do something about it. Warn the first time and then whack him. You always have to end up doing that anyway...but only after you've taken further abuse from him for a complete half. If you won't take care of bidness, you don't get to complain.

2) And there's your partner's first mistake too. You "T" the act. That guy got a pass...he completely got away with dumping on you to your partner. Maybe the next guy making a comment hasn't said a single word up to that date. Don't matter...now you're gonna nail him and let the chronic b!tcher slide. That's just wrong. The idea is to treat every player on both teams the same way. They <b>all</b> should get a warning and then get whacked if they're giving you a hard time.

JMO.