Sigh. First of the season, and I bear some blame
 

I hate handing out a T and being upset afterwards with not handling the lead up to it very well.

Tonight was a great reminder to answer questions and not respond to comments. I did, and it led to having to give a T.

Ugh.

Feel free to share the details.

Well, I've waited for it, what the heck happened?

It's not that great a story. Coach didn't like the way I responded to a question early in the game. He thought I was being a smart ***, I most definitely was not. That got things off to a poor start. He then didn't like my explanation that his big kid couldn't just move two defenders out of the way on a throw in. Some comment about being entitled to a spot. I thought, 'exactly', but oh well. Tried harder than I should have to explain, and knew it. Should have been my cue to forget trying to explain much.

Second half, call another foul on his big guy on a shot. He simply moved into the player. Coach says 'He went straight up!' That is what I should have ignored. Instead, I say 'He moved into him, Coach!' That of course gets an 'everyone in the gym saw it' followed by 'except for one!'

Bang.

Didn't have many problems after that, but was pissed @ myself for not handling a couple of the situations with more brevity.

Sorry for any misspellings/punctuation...typing on my phone.

T's aren't given. They are earned. No reason to feel bad about yourself. You didn't earn it. The coach did.

I didn't see anything wrong with your responses. Sometimes, comments ARE questions and need to be addressed. Yes you can ignore too, but most comments need to be addressed, whether by looking, ignoring, answering, or "that's enough coach". Good T IMO

From your description it sounds like you gave him what he earned.

I wasn't there so I can't really judge how you answered the questions but it seems to me like everything was done well.

Some coaches are just goofs.

You shouldn't "hate" handing out a T. They are the same as a block, a charge, a hold etc. It's a foul.

Yeah, I don't hate it because it was a T, I hate it because the entire situation could have been managed more effectively by me. The T was necessary. I just think I could have done a better job leading up to it and may not have been in the situation at all.

Oh well. Wasn't the first time, won't be the last.

I think it is a useful exercise to consider how you might have better handled the situation. I think it's equally useful to remember that no matter what you do, you can only control one side of the interaction.