Man, I have a lot to learn.....
 

Last BV game of the season, I'm working with two of our senior ( 20+ year) V officials, already a slight case of the nerves,

We get into the ref's room before the game and our R suddenly tells me that we're switching things up tonight, and I was going to give the pregame, conduct the meetings, and toss. Talk about getting caught unawares...

I stumbled through pregame as best as I could, ( I never know what to say to officials that have been doing this for years and years, and me in my sophomore season:rolleyes:). Basically, we talked about the two teams, one that I had had a couple of games with earlier this year, one that I had not seen. I brought up having good eye contact at dead balls, and making sure we were all on the same page as far as FT lane coverage. Just glad they didn't laugh....

Meetings & toss, no problem... then

I'm L, & called a block midway through the first, basket counted ( nope, didn't look up, but looked at T and he indicated good), and added one shot. I go to report the foul, the T is right there asking who my shooter was. ( yeah, I should've had it, and vowed that I would if I got asked again.) Come to find out later on, I had called across the lane and my C had whistled as well. ( so much for my good eye contact at a dead ball) He went ahead and let me have the foul then, and was nice about it during half time meeting, but said that I had poached... Ay,yi yi..

Second quarter, pretty basic. No quizzes, I thnk they felt sorry for me..

Halftime, we talk about the double whistle, and my poach...

About 3:30 left in third, we're at a full TO. R comes to me and asked me the "status" of the game; score, time left, foul counts, anybody with foul problems... I got fouls and approx. time left, missed score by a few, and had no clue about players in foul trouble. Talk about red faced....:o

Fourth quarter, C calls a foul, and sure enough, my R is there asking me who the shooter was to be. This time I had it, and confidently reported.

Both guys were very gracious and congratulated me on a good game after wards, but I left there tonight feeling like a true blue rookie. I have a long ways to go...... but I hope to get there someday.

Oh well, one more GJV Thursday, a week and a half off, then on to girl's soccer.

Imperfect, certainly, but if this is your one mistake in the game, you're ok.



Some of us think that this is not information that we should make a point of having.

What exactly is the benefit of an official knowing which players might be in foul trouble?

Some will say the awareness that a player will be disqualified on his next foul is valuable because they are immediately ready to proceed with the disqualification and the chance of this player improperly being allowed to stay in the game is greatly diminished.

To this I say :rolleyes:

Others say when a player, particularly a "star" player has early foul trouble, we should be careful not to give him a "cheap one" or to make sure each foul is a "good one" or some other such nonsense.

I say this is not worthy of response.

What I would tke away from this

1) you should ready to be a lead ref at every game. You either lead, follow or get out of the way.... f you want to excel you need to be able to lead.

Be prepare to be the lead ref all the time, You should know how to do a pregame. Pregames dont change much since guys have not worked with each other cover a lot of the same things.

2) Game management--- Game awareness are importatnt

Since you were the referee, why were you not asking all these questions?

As stated in the thread title, I still have a LOT to learn. :)

Good points, both. Thank you!

I'll sometimes check who is in foul trouble in the 4th. I don't like giving cheap fouls and the advantage is on a questionable that could go either way give it too a teammate. But there are problems with that. Star player with 4 fouls does a little grab and push to get a rebound. Minor foul but it allowed him to get the ball. Called a traveling call a few seconds after and it was but passing on a foul, albeit a cheap one helped his team.
in a different game I also fouled out a good player with a double foul when he and the defensive player were pushing each other in the post. Afterwards I thought I should have let it go. Good call in the first half but not in the last five minutes. It is a fine line to walk there so I suggest you don't go overboard about seeing who is in foul trouble because it just might change the way you call the game. You don't want to foul someone out with a cheap foul but if you have to so be it otherwise you could give a team an advantage.

You did all that yet you try not to go overboard?

that's what I've learned and not to repeat those mistakes. and I'm saying it can be good to know the foul situations because in the double foul case I should have passed on it. I didn't know the player had 4 fouls. In the one I passed on I did know he had 4. So goes both ways. Now maybe a check but I want to make sure no big change in how I'm calling the game.

Your more experienced partners may have been doing you a huge favor in giving you this responsibility. They may have been sending a message to the coaches that you are worthy of running this game, assuming they have never seen you before. I had a very esteemed member of my last association do this as a regular practice with new partners. I appreciated it.

Again they were doing you a big favor here. These are (mostly) things you should be aware of throughout the game for your game management skills.

Sounds like you had a great experience. Take these things and build on them for each game you work, varsity or not.

1) Here's a better idea. Don't call cheap and/or questionable fouls in the first place and you won't have to worry about this.

2) How can it be a minor foul if it allowed him to get the ball? Methinks you really don't understand the concept of using advantage/disadvantage

3) Are you serious? :eek:

To sum up, you don't believe in advantage/disadvantage or consistency in calling a game, but you do believe in calling cheap, questionable fouls as long as you can give it to a teammate and not to a player with 4 fouls.

Great advice! :rolleyes:

Lah me.......

With the possible exception of the team foul counts, how relevant is it to commit any of these to memory in the third quarter?

While I understand your question......
 

Good game management skills should be used throughout the game. It's not something you "turn on" with two minutes to go in the 4th quater.

JMO.

Sure they should.

But that still doesn't detail for me the importance of memorizing the aforementioned parts (score, time left, foul problems-yeesh) of the game in the third quarter.

Why do schools buy those fancy scoreboards if I have to memorize the score...if I have to memorize the score, fouls, foul troubled youths, time left, time outs left, #34 favorite after game meal, I WANT A RAISE!!! :)

I love it!

Do you think it's important to know the exact score, as opposed to having a general idea of the size of the lead?

Usually I'd be hard-pressed to know the exact score of a game, but I generally try keep a good idea of the relative score: "Home team is up by a bunch (10+)", "Visitors are leading by a few (4-10)", "Score is pretty much tied (within three points either way)"

My wife when I get home: "who won?"
Me: "I did"

when you start caring too much about the exact score/ player fouls etc you simply have stopped doing the job you were contracted to do. Let the scorer do their job and you do yours!

Oh I don't know. The score matters. Last night's game is an example. With under 10 seconds left in over time, white was up 5 and blue had the ball in the FC coming out of a TO. It was worth knowing the score so we would be aware of Blue's likely tactic; score quickly and foul quickly.

Knowing the score doesn't equate to caring who wins.

That said, in the third quarter, I'm likely to just have a general idea of the score and clock.

Same here.

It's not that I care who wins, it's that I want to know if one team or the other might try using different tactics then they had been previously... running a delay offense instead of going for quick transition baskets, pressing, fouling quickly to stop the clock, etc.

Last night, last HS game of the year for me. Fourth quarter and we have a violation of some sort. I see the timer waving at me. I look at the scoreboards and they are both out. I head over to the table while asking my partner, "2:05 left, right?" He shrugs.

Plug finds its way back into the socket or something and the board comes on. 2:04. :D Visiting coach ribs me about not knowing the right time. If the scoreboard would've reset, it would've been a pretty good thing that I didn't wait until the last two minutes of the fourth to start with my game awareness.