Odd situation from my last tournament.

[CoachCER]

I will do my best to explain this one, although figuring out how to explain it is a little tough. It kind of caught me by surprise, and I am honestly interested in the take some of you may have about how this went down.

I was a coaching a 16U boys game at a tournament out of state. Three man crew, and two of the three had called a couple of my earlier games. I rarely speak to officials during games other than for clarification, and my experience with the two had been great.

The game was going well for my team, we were winning a tight one, and I had not made any comments to any of the officials. Late in the 2nd half, my PG was called for a push off while going to the basket. I had no comment on the call (it happened across the court and I didn't see what happened real well). I did feel that #23 from the opposing team had been pushing off earlier, and I asked the ref closest to me (he happened to be one of the ones I had earlier in the tournament) if they could "watch #23 for the push off." The ref I directed the comment to acknowledged my comment, and nothing more was said. He was maybe 3-4 feet from me, and my comment was made in a conversational voice.

We go to haltime, leading by 6. During the half, two of the officials exited the gym, but the third did not, and he happened to be the one who made the push-off call. He came up to me during the half, put his arm around me from the side, and muttered something to me that I couldn't make out. He had a bit of an accent, and it wasn't until he finally spoke up that I got what he was telling me.

Him: "Coach, if you say that again, I am ejecting you from the gym."

Me: "Say what again?"

Him: "You know what you said, and I am giving you a friendly warning. I hear it again, you are gone."

Me: "I have no idea what you are talking about."

Him: "When you were talking to my partner, you said my call was 'b***s***'. I am letting you off this time, but next time I am ejecting you."

At this point, I am stunned. I never said that, and frankly, I never even thought it.

Me: " What? I didn't say that."

Him: "No need to lie. I am letting it go with a warning."

Me: "You don't need to warn me, because I didn't say that! I don't swear on the bench!"

Him: "Yes, you did. I heard you from across the gym. You need to quit lying about it, and accept my warning."

Okay, at this point, I admit I am losing my cool.

Me: "I never said anything like that! I asked your partner to watch the push off on 23. That was all. Your partner would have T'd me if I said anything close to that!"

Him: "You are raising your voice to me. You have to coach another half with me as your referee, so watch yourself. I tried to give you a friendly warning, but you don't want it. I will not be as nice in the second half."

He then exits the gym, and I am now boiling mad. Now, the two referees I had in the previous games were old school guys. By the book, take nothing from nobody, and there was no way either would have let me say a call was BS and get away with it. I also should mention that in general, I was very pleased with the style of game these guys were calling, and there was no way I was looking for drama at that point.

I was also a little stuck as to what to do. My assistant and the table staff both overheard the tail end of this conversation, and all were stunned by what I was being accused of, and we couldn't figure out where this was coming from. I was uncomfortable with this guy waiting to approach me after his partners left the gym, his putting his arm around me (just kind of a weird thing to do), and receiving a "last warning" for something that never happened.

Rather than posting what happened next, my question to the board is what do you think I should have done at this point?