Closely guarded
 

Had a tight BV game last night that ended up going 2OT and was won by the visiting team by one point (home team had a look at a 3 at the buzzer and missed).

Late in regulation, the home team was settling for a last shot and there was about 15 seconds left. Guard has the ball just inside the division line and the defender steps up and closes within six feet. I started a 5-second count. The defender never close to less than about 4 feet, but the rule was satisfied and I kept counting. Once I got to five, I whistled the violation (there was about 9 seconds left) and pointed the other way.

Home coach wasn't happy. First he asked how I could make such a call in that situation, then he claimed the defender wasn't even guarding his player. Bah. I was the new lead, so I didn't really stick around.

My partner almost had a similar call (on the dribble) in the first OT, but the kid dribbled away from his defender. On a timeout he said to me, "they have three assistants on the bench and none of them saw us swinging our arms?"

Personally, I'm not a huge fan of the rule (I'd prefer a shot clock and a holding distance of 3 feet like the NCAA), but I have my arm swinging the entire game (it seems). The coaches expect it (on defense) and it's a POE.

Well, apparently the coach was right because the game went to overtime because of your call. Good thing Mark wasn't your evaluator.

The player would've tried driving through three defenders and then the coach would've complained that we didn't call a foul to bail them out. Trust me. ;)

CMHCoachNRef will be happy with that! :)

I didn't know you were at my games last night. Did you T up the home head coach too?

Grunewar,
Dang, you beat me to it! :)

RichMSN,
First of all takes guts (I mean that in a very positive way!!!) to make the right call in that situation. Of course, I am in your camp on this one. When I referee such a play, I try to get my count started as soon as the player is being loosely guarded at 6 feet -- I mean closely guarded at 6 feet.

As a coach, I CONSTANTLY watch the officials looking to see if the count has started. If we are on defense, I tell the defender to step forward, generally, to get a count started. When we are on offense, I am counting along with the official -- and giving instructions (PICK IT UP!!! or retreat or go by him or REQUESTING a timeout).

If a coach (and his assistants are NOT watching you -- ALL FORTY minutes of the game, in this case -- shame on them!!! To turn it around, had you not counted OR not made the call, you would have been unfair to the defense.

Nice job -- other than the overtime part :rolleyes:

I stopped reading right there. :rolleyes:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.....
 

Same thing I do with your posts when you start them out by saying, "Tonight I officiated a "competitive" third grade rec game!" :D

Bwahahaha!

Asked In A Very Sarcastic Tone ...
 

"Coach. What other rules would you like me to ignore in the last fifteeen seconds of the game?"

No - the "competitive" league around here starts at 5th grade, although there's an "open" tournament this coming weekend that starts with both boys and girls 4th grade teams. They want me to work two games on Sunday morning starting at 8:30 but I'm not sure I want to, since it's about a 40 minute drive. A guy does need his beauty sleep, ya' know. :p