"Coach do you need a tissue?"
 

I had a game last night. Girls Varsity. Neither team is very good, about a .500 season for both.

The coach for the visitors has been tossed once for his behavior and I know this. All night long, every call that goes against him his is whining and crying. I wish you could have heard him. " How is that not a jump ball?" ( I don't know, maybe because both players did not have position? ) "she's walking" ( No, she did a jump stop ) " How is that a foul at that end but not this end?" ( Uh because she didn't get fouled at this end?)

I got so sick of his crying ( oh and BTW, he was winning, even though it was only by 3 to 5 points ) I wanted to walk over to him and offer him a tissue....

I love refereeing basketball. I hate coaches who cry about every call all night long. If they coached more and cried less, they might have a chance at winning more games. JMO.

Why not reign him in if it's bad enough to distract you?

He didn't distract me, I just found him silly and annoying.

I coached for 11 years. Yeah, I yelled at the refs at first, but once I got to high school, my job was to get the kids in the best position to win. that means when they come out of a game, I tell them what they did wrong and how to do it better, not stand there and yell at the referee, again, JMO.

BTW, this is my 9th year refereeing.

How about just ignore him...it didn't seem like any of his comments where that bad.

Your not doing anyone a favor.....
 

I would have went over and told him I heard enough.

You can help them, force them to focus on their players... Warn and Whack. Simple concept. I used to think giving more and more rope was the right thing, but experience has taught me "the sooner you take care of bidness" the better it will be for everyone.

Fair enough, but I'm not going to put up with it on every call. He'll know quickly that it won't be tolerated.

The game was tied several times. We had 1 problem, the shot clock ( 30 seconds ) had 4 seconds on it. Visitors had the ball OOB under their basket. I am opposite in C ( 3 man ) ball comes in I glance at the clock, 4 secs. I look bak to my area, pass pass, ball to low post my side. I look at the clock, 4 secs, now I am concerned. Shot, partner calls a foul. mentally I have 4 to 5 secs gone, but I can't say, 4 or 5 one or the other, it was close. Clock reset on the shot, even though ball did not hit the rim. Home coach is going crazy. It's her clock opperator.

We come together and I give my info to partners. All I have to say is, I saw the clock didn't start, but I can't say when the foul occured. It could have been at the 4 sec mark. I would have blown my whistle in one more second for certain, but it didn't come to that.

Now I tell you, this because visitor hit both FTs. If I "T" the visitor coiach, I have an effect on the game, and I'd rather not, he was just whinney ( sp? ).

Later home team ties the score and I figure, no harm, no call on the "T" for visiting coach.

This is my 3 rd time with him this year. 1st two times, he wasn't as bad. This was his last game of the season. He won by 7 at the FT line.

Indecisiveness
 

Why did you wait this long? If you noticed the timer is not functioning properly, stop play immediately.

You are willing to let a coach upstage you (and your crew) multiple times without redress and you are afraid it might "have an effect on the game." I am willing to bet he did influence the way you called the game, because you were unwilling to establish a sense of control over his conduct. He could be confident he could influence you. Nip it in the bud EARLY!

What relevance does this have?

I am not following your logic. What are you saying here?

First of all, it's 4 seconds. It was pass, pass, pass, shot. No dribble and I was watching my area. When the ball entered, I glanced at the clock, I went back to my area, Pass, pass, I look at the clock, still four seconds, Shot, Foul, I was going to blow, but my partner called the foul.

That's why, 1 more second and I was going to blow.

If you are using the warn and whack method keep 2 things in mind: Using the language "if you continue then I'll T you up" lets a player or coach know they've gotten away with technical foul worthy behavior already. It also makes them feel like you are threatening them with the rules of the game... players and coaches at high levels know the rules and know what will draw a T.

We use the technical foul call to keep the game in control. Preventative officiating is a great tool but when something is done or said that warrants a T then the result should be a T 99.9% of the time. Threatening with a T doesn't give us the control that a real T does.

If we say "easy coach" or if we give the capt a brief heads up about player or coach behavior early on, I would argue that is all the warning we need to give.

Did I rant? Does this apply more to the intramurals I'm used to or do you all agree?

I agree not to use the language. It's unnecessarily confrontational, and it boxes you into a corner.
Warn: "Coach, that's enough."

-and give the visible "stop" sign so everyone in the gym knows the coach has been warned.

-and follow up with a T the next incident.

Disagree. Although I wouldn't put it this way (I don't use conditionals to warn), the warning might be that the discussion has ended. If they get a T for continuing it, that doesn't show that they got away with something before the T.

going to start a follow up thread about "T"'s

That's true i suppose there is an amount of chatter we'll allow and a degree of chatter. I was more focused on the degree stuff, like cursing out the ref and not so much the amount of conversation, like how long a coach cries about a call... I'm less apt to warn in the former case than the ladder.