Wacked by coach

[lpneck]

Congratulations on the playoff assignment. I have 2 things to note.

1.) I would work on improving your situational awareness. You were the table side official in a situation where a team was extremely likely to be looking for a time-out. As soon as that shot went through the hoop, you should have been looking at him to grant the time-out. That is the only play in town for the table side C after the ball goes in. If you get it right away, as opposed to your partner who is 60 feet from the coach having to get it, you probably save yourself the second situation.

2.) As described, if he "disgustedly" hit your arm on purpose, that is an easy technical foul.

[deecee]

Originally Posted by lpneck

Congratulations on the playoff assignment. I have 2 things to note.

1.) I would work on improving your situational awareness. You were the table side official in a situation where a team was extremely likely to be looking for a time-out. As soon as that shot went through the hoop, you should have been looking at him to grant the time-out. That is the only play in town for the table side C after the ball goes in. If you get it right away, as opposed to your partner who is 60 feet from the coach having to get it, you probably save yourself the second situation.

I strongly disagree with your statement here. In a loud gym, sometimes the worst spot to notice a TO request by a coach is the official bench side with his back to the coach. In 3 person this is the perfect spot for the new lead to step in and make the call as they have the best view of the TO request that the coach is making.

Anytime a coach "expects" a TO just because they "ask" for one the only thing they should "expect" is NOTHING. In a loud gym you cannot hear them. Coaches KNOW that not only do they yell for a TO but they also make the universal T with their hands and jump up and down on the sideline if THEY REALLY WANT IT THAT bad.

just my 2 cents. you cannot reason with unreasonable people.

[Texas Aggie]

Its easy for me to come on here and say "I would have..." when I wasn't there. I know, I know -- we (including me) do that all the time on here.

However, I understand the hesitation. Would I have stuck him? Given the great description by the OP (it clearly gave me a picture to put myself into), I have to give a firm...I don't know. Probably, but then again, maybe not. I hate to sound wishy washy, but I'm just being honest. Not that it matters if you are doing the right thing, but the biggest problem you have in issuing a technical here is not so much deciding the game but giving him an excuse to blame you. Again, we don't run from the right thing, at least not hopefully, but we aren't computers; we make decisions where there is no one right answer. On the other hand, intentional physical contact is totally unacceptable. He needs to be severely reprimanded regardless of what your actions were after it happened. If he's not, then we've got a huge problem.

One of the things to learn from this is that you need to pregame late game situations. I talk about the official opposite the table (3 man) ALWAYS looking toward the bench areas after ANY made basket in the last minute to pick up a called timeout. If the C is table-side, he or she is now laser focused on the players while the T watches the benches.

Report his ***, discuss the play with other officials and learn from it.