Fibnally Grew A Pair ...

[tomegun]

I have some things to think about when it comes to giving coaches technical fouls and your post. IMO, a coaches job is one of the most helpless in basketball because they can only give instruction and not actually do what they would like done on the court. Having said that, a coach still has no excuse for certain behavior and that behavior should be addressed. I'm not saying call a T, but the behavior cannot be ignored.

Originally Posted by BillyMac

Right or wrong. Good or bad. I don't usually give high school coaches technical fouls. I have a very long fuse compared to most. It's not because I'm trying to stay on the coach's good side. Here in Connecticut coaches vote for state tournament officials and I'm no where near that caliber of official, so I can give a crap about whether they vote for me, or not. Maybe it's because I coached middle school basketball for over twenty-five years and know how frustrating their job can be. Maybe it's because I am so concentrating on what's happening on the floor that I don't hear, or see, what's going on off the floor. Maybe after twenty-nine seasons of doing this my skin has gotten thicker, and I've learned how to "tune out" the coaches. I would rather defuse problems with various game management techniques, including, but not limited to, warnings. My last technical foul to a high school coach was in 2006-07.

Yesterday. Prep school. Visiting coach seems displeased with some of my foul calls and non calls, questioning why a foul "down there" is not a foul "up here". He's not distracting me, and after several times up and down the court, I'm not close enough to address his questions. All of a sudden he yells loudly, "That's ridiculous", at the same time I'm reporting a foul against his team to the table.


Also, game management was 100% easier after that technical. It certainly made the game better and smoother. Also, it felt good, real good. I hope that this isn't addictive, because I have an addictive personality.

It seems like you are trying to justify why you don't call technical fouls while making some back-handed remarks about those who do. I'm referring to the comment about your skin getting thicker. In the end, your game management was easier - sort of like you realized what other officials who call technical fouls realized.

Originally Posted by BillyMac

No, I only heard it once or twice, just never got a chance to answer his questions, by being close enough to him, after several "trips" up and down the court. I believe that he was questioning the competence of my calls rather than my integrity. I would of liked to respond to him, because both the calls he was referring to were actually very similar, except one involved no displacement, and the other involved displacement. Of course, he never gave me a chance to answer is questions, unless you consider my whack a response.

Like someone mentioned, this isn't part of coaching. Questioning an official's calls is simply that, questioning an official's calls. You can rationalize it all you want, but he did it and it should have been addressed.

It isn't really that big of a deal though. The good thing about a T is, if I'm around within half a court's length of a coach, maybe farther, I have no problem whacking him.