The good, the bad and the ugly
 

Got a call late yesterday afternoon to work a 5th grade boys "competitive" game at 6:15 that had just been rescheduled. I took the game, mostly because the gym is three minutes from my house.

First - the good: final score was home 44, visitors 14 - I love blowouts.

Next - the bad: partner, on successive possessions called a "travel" on the inbounder using the "travel" mechanic, then a "reach" foul using a "reach" mechanic. Later in the game he called an "over the back" foul. Fortunately, he didn't use any mechanic.

Finally - the ugly: one of the boys on the visiting team cried three times after being called for fouls. When he eventually fouled out, he sat on the bench and cried. The first time he did it, I thought he might be hurt so I stopped the game to check. I learned my lesson after that. BTW - his coach (who was not his dad) never said a word to him the whole time. He just let him cry. I dunno - maybe this is a common occurrence with this kid?

Did your partner also signal OOB on lines that weren't his responsibility? I have had this happen to me repeatedly by lesser and more experienced partners this season.

That alone ticks me off more than anything...and not a whole lot ticks me off when it comes to the partners I work with.

I thought about putting this in a separate thread, but, it's too petty IMO.

Thanks for providing a place for me to use as a forum to vent a pet peeve. :)

edit: thanks snaqwells

What exactly is the reach mechanic?

Kind of like this: :eek:

http://z.about.com/d/golf/1/5/G/g/si...cone_reach.JPG

Crying!!
 

About ten years ago, Daryl "The Preacher" Long and I were officiating a pool play game in the Michigan AAU Girls' 18U National Qualifier and I called a girl for a charge (she litereally ran over the defender). When I called the foul on her she disagreed with my quite strongly, to say the least, enough for me to whack her. When I whacked her she started crying. I am a very mean person. :D

MTD, Sr.

I'll bet Jr. would agree.

I spoke with one of the assignors for this league this morning and he told me he had that same team last week and the same kid fouled out and started crying! He said he was thinking of going over to him and telling him "There's no crying in basketball", but he figured the kid wouldn't have a clue as to the reference, and probably his parents would take offense and he didn't need that.

Let his teammates mock him.

Can you explain exactly what this is? I'm not sure if this is something I too am doing wrong or if I've been lucky enogh to have never come across it.

I read it as an official who makes OOB calls on a line that isn't his responsibility (i.e. trail official making OOB on the end).

I did that once - but it was on a ball that bounced from a court next to mine - onto my court stopping our game - about 2 feet between sidelines. I saw ball coming and when ball touched floor (on our court) I whistled, pointed, and said "Red".

No one got mad that it wasn't my line. :D

OK, that makes sense. I didn't see the word coverages in his post.

I thought it might have been refs who call an OOB violation if the player throwing it in steps over the line before releasing the ball (something I've never seen) or calling OOB if the ball touches the rafters or a rope supporting the basket (something I do).

I had a guy at a MS tournament last weekend who had everything covered. He whistled and kind of did a "goodbye" wave with his arm and then said: "violation white - blue ball" and "foul blue - white shoots or white ball"

I prefer to call it the "look at me" wave.

Whenever this happens, I tell them "Thank you. That was very nice of you to share, but we already have a ball." :)