Is this common in your neck of the woods?

[Pantherdreams]

Originally Posted by Jurassic Referee

Unfortunately, the "game interruption" that they're advocating is a legitimate offensive violation. What you're doing is aiding the offensive team and screwing the defensive team. As BktBallRef said, that makes no sense at all. Officials are supposed to be neutral. What you're doing is a coaching function.

However, you really don't have a choice if your local association tells you to do that.

Silly monkey local association.

And btw, the foul count in ANY game is predicated on the play, not the officials. And I don't care what association you're in or where it is, some officials will call a tighter game than others. And age and experience doesn't have that much to with that either. As long as both (tight and loose) are consistent, there's not a damn thing the matter with that imo. The players/coaches will adjust to the officiating that they get. It's inconsistent officiating that drives 'em nuts. Your statement above about "old school officials" shows very little actual knowledge about basic officiating realities imo.

And btw, that term "game interrupter" is a pet peeve of mine. Every time you blow the whistle, no matter what for, you interrupt the game. A timeout is a game interrupter. All the "game interrupter" advocates are doing is advocating blowing fewer whistles. And that's dumb. You call what happens in that particular game. And what happens in that particular game is set by the players, not the officials.

End of rant.

I couldn't agree more. I'm young and definitely have areas I can improve in but . . .

If the nature of any game determines how many fouls are called then there shouldn't be 35+ fouls in every game.

And while good and poor officials can come in any age, shape or size. When the 2-3 oldest officials in our zone that I refer to as old school call all contact a foul. When you try to talk to them about adv/disadv. they says that's ridiculous all contact impedes someone somehow and that causes the disadvantage.

I am not near to being the official i want to be but I know who I don't want to be:

- I don't want to be the official doing a game between two top teams that get university level officials night in and night out except at an evaluation tournament and then having two of our local guys combined to call 61 fouls.

- I don't want to foul out 7 players in a provincial (state) final when those teams have played 3 times prior and had 3 players foul out total.

- I don't want to be the official making this quote: Coach: If you are going to call that then you can't play m2m defense on them. Partner X: Good - They figured that out 2 quarters ago. Now play zone.

- I don't want to be named in a report which was sent by one local coach to our association claiming that in 10 local games his team had players foul out 27 times while they fouled out 13 times in 15 games out of conference.

I'm not perfect, but I know from experience and reputation that our zone calls a tighter game then any other in our area of the country. As a result our kids try to adjust but the game just then gets called tighter and tighter. While me and other officials for the sake of consistency need to make the calls these guys are making in a given game. I shouldn't have officials telling coaches their kids are too rough and then having these same kids go to play road games and being told by officials they are too soft and have to play through that.

End of Rant.

[Mark Padgett]

After reviewing this thread, I've decided I'm going to verbalize five-second inbound counts from now on. However, I'm going to do it like this: 3, 5, 2, 1, 4. It'll be a lot more fun that way.

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally Posted by Pantherdreams

If the nature of any game determines how many fouls are called then there shouldn't be 35+ fouls in every game.

And while good and poor officials can come in any age, shape or size. When the 2-3 oldest officials in our zone that I refer to as old school call all contact a foul. When you try to talk to them about adv/disadv. they says that's ridiculous all contact impedes someone somehow and that causes the disadvantage.

You might have 20 fouls in one game and 80 in the next. And sometimes that's true if the same teams play again but decide to change their defensive philosophies. The bottom line is that our job is to react. We call what happens at any particular point in any particular game...and hopefully we do so consistently. It isn't our job to make any kind of decision as to how a game should be played. That's up to the players and their coaches. Yes, we each set our own personal standards as to how how much contact we allow during the game. The key is to just try to follow those standards as consistently as you can.

You're using the world "old" when you should be using the word "incompetent". And being older than dirt myself, that tends to piss me off. "Old School" ain't necessarily "bad school".

What I think that you have is a philosophy difference between yourself and some of the people in your association. I really don't think that age or experience is that big of a factor either. That kinda thing is fairly common in a lot of associations between officials across the spectrum in my experience. And there's really not much you can do by yourself to change it. What you can do is stick to your own personal ideas and values as to how to call a game. If everybody disagrees with that, you'll sureashell find out in a hurry anyway.

The great thing is that you obviously care about the job that you are doing. Please, don't ever lose that care. What we do is a never-ending quest to keep up with the game as it continually changes and evolves.

As usual, jmo.

[26 Year Gap]

I have done just a few games with a shot clock. The shot clocks are on the top of both backboards where all players, bench personnel, coaches and officials can readily see them. No difference from the game clock in my opinion. Why penalize the defense by letting the offense know what they should already know? Spot throw-in or run of the line especially coming in from a timeout is not the same in my opinion.

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by 26 Year Gap

Spot throw-in or run of the line especially coming in from a timeout is not the same in my opinion.

Required in IAABO mechanics. Just added this past season. Previous to this it had been a suggested option. Not sure about NFHS. I'm sure a non-IAABO Forum member will be along shortly to bring us up to speed on NFHS mechanics regarding this situation.

[Back In The Saddle]

Spot or running baseline throw-in v. time remaining on the shot clock is apples and oranges. Spot/running is not obvious. If you are the thrower and you have a brain fart and don't recall why you're throwing the ball in, there is nowhere you can look for that information. The shot clock, OTOH, is prominently displayed. Not only can the player look at any time to remind himself of the remaining time, he is coached to do so...every time the ball becomes live.

By reminding the players of the remaining time, you are doing for them what they rightly should be doing for themselves.