Ejection ...

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally Posted by JugglingReferee

In the first case, the official is using a tool to deflate the situation. Understand the psychology of the coach: he simply wants to be heard. By the official acknowledging that he is aware of the coach's belief, he can avoid any esculation. By using a tool that brings attention to himself, ie. the stop sign, the official is telling the coach that his opinion doesn't matter. As true as that is, the coach thinking that his opinion does matter means that the game is over without incident.

Liken it to "get in, get done, get out".

Um, aren't all of you kinda forgetting that the damn coach was complaining about the officials missing a call? Whatinthehell does that have to do with the coach having an opinion that doesn't matter. The coach's opinion was that you missed a call. Period. And now he's complaining about you missing that call. Where does it say that the official now has to worry about the poor widdle coach's feelings?

The bottom line is whether you choose to ignore a coach complaining or do you do something about it. And that option is up to the calling official only.

Once the coach complains, you have 3 options....ignore the complaint, warn the coach about continuing to complain or deal with the complaining immediately with a "T". If you choose to warn the coach, the idea is to tell the coach that he's ALREADY had his say and that's enough. And if you can't tell that coach that he's had his say by simply raising your hand in a non-confrontational manner and saying "that's enough, coach", we might as well forget about trying to keep any game under a modicum of control and just sit back and let everybody do what they want to do. That act is about as innocuous as you can get.

Any escalation after receiving a warning about complaining about a call is solely up to the coach. If he wants to ignore a warning, he then deserves everything that he gets. And if an official wants to issue a warning and then refuses to follow up on that warning when a coach ignores it, then that official deserves everything that he gets also.

Every time you blow your whistle, you bring attention to yourself. If you want to stop a coach complaining, you have to bring attention to yourself in some way to do so. Thinking otherwise is just patently ridiculous imo.

Lah me......"he simply wants to be heard" Of course he wants to be heard. That's why he's COMPLAINING!!!!

And note that I am not saying that one way is better than another. Whatever works for you is the best way. I am saying though that imo there is nothing the matter with the way that Billy handled the coach's complaints. He warned the coach about continuing to complain and then he did something about it when the coach refused to heed his warning.

[rockyroad]

We can argue the "I would have done it this way" or the "Stop sign vs. not" stuff all summer...the bottom line here is that the Coach made an inappropriate comment which was addressed by the Official. The Coach continued to make inappropriate comments and was assessed a T. The Coach CONTINUED to make inappropriate comments and got a second T and ejection. End of story.

As I said earlier in this thread, after the first T I am going over to my partner - rookie or no - to have a discussion about what we are going to do. Get as far away as possible. But if he/she keeps it up, I will give him/her the second T. And this Coach absolutely deserved both of them. The rest of this whole thread is just arguing over style points.

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally Posted by rockyroad

We can argue the "I would have done it this way" or the "Stop sign vs. not" stuff all summer...the bottom line here is that the Coach made an inappropriate comment which was addressed by the Official. The Coach continued to make inappropriate comments and was assessed a T. The Coach CONTINUED to make inappropriate comments and got a second T and ejection. End of story.

As I said earlier in this thread, after the first T I am going over to my partner - rookie or no - to have a discussion about what we are going to do. Get as far away as possible. But if he/she keeps it up, I will give him/her the second T. And this Coach absolutely deserved both of them. The rest of this whole thread is just arguing over style points.

And the above is basically all that I've been trying to say.

[tref]

Billy, no knock on you &/or how you handled your situation. Anybody could be a backseat driver! Madd respect for you & the rules knowledge you've blessed me with over the years!
My thoughts were based on your question, "Has anybody ever have a game go so bad, so quick?"

JR, all I've been trying to say is:

Originally Posted by BillyMac

Foul on White 11. I report it to the table. Table informs me that it is 11's fifth foul.

I inform White coach that 11 has five fouls.

IMO that begins the flash point right there. Sorta like asking a coach if its a full or 30 second t/o late in the 4th Q when he's been out of 30s since the 2nd Q You don't think he's gonna have something smart to say?

The game within the game! Know your surroundings, see the sub at the table & converse accordingly. ie: "Is the sub for 11, he has 5."
Since little hinges swing big doors, perhaps wording it that way could have eliminated the following:

Originally Posted by BillyMac

White Coach informs me that he already knows and has a sub available at the table and adds that we should have called a foul on Red previous to 11's foul.

I simply state "That's enough coach", while giving a non-threatening "stop sign". In twenty-nine years this technique has worked for me 99.5% of the time.

My point was, if a team is getting hammered & they have a player foul out in a EOG situation & we go tell the coach something (11 has 5 fouls) that he has already taken care of... he gets to chirp about a call he thinks he should've got!
I hear you, coach instead of that's enough coach w/stop sign could've minimized the chances of Ts being thrown... especially when he hadn't said a word all game. OR maybe not, but putting ourselves in the best position to difuse situations as opposed to pouring gasoline on it is always better. Wouldn't ya say?

If I "that's enoughed w/stop sign" every coach who said, "there was a foul on them before we fouled" there would be alot of assistants getting their opportunity. Because once we give that stop sign, we have got to take care of business on the next negative interaction. Cant take it back!

[M&M Guy]

Originally Posted by tref

JR, all I've been trying to say is:

IMO that begins the flash point right there. Sorta like asking a coach if its a full or 30 second t/o late in the 4th Q when he's been out of 30s since the 2nd Q You don't think he's gonna have something smart to say?

So, um, let me get this straight, you would purposely avoid your responsibility under 2-8-4, just so you can keep the coach from saying some smart comment? Isn't that effectively having the coach control you, and your actions? When does White 11 become disqualified? Under your scenario, never, per 4-14-2.

Billy did exactly what he was supposed to do, which was inform the coach that player had 5 fouls. The coach continued to act inappropriately, and was penalized accordingly. Like rocky said, we can argue style points all day, but what Billy did was correct. And what the coach did had nothing to do with being informed #11 had 5 fouls.

[tref]

Originally Posted by M&M Guy

So, um, let me get this straight, you would purposely avoid your responsibility under 2-8-4, just so you can keep the coach from saying some smart comment? Isn't that effectively having the coach control you, and your actions? When does White 11 become disqualified? Under your scenario, never, per 4-14-2.

Billy did exactly what he was supposed to do, which was inform the coach that player had 5 fouls. The coach continued to act inappropriately, and was penalized accordingly. Like rocky said, we can argue style points all day, but what Billy did was correct. And what the coach did had nothing to do with being informed #11 had 5 fouls.

(In my best Archie Bunker voice) Jeeeezzzz!!

Umm NO, sorry, never said THAT!
What I did say, in plain english mind you, was,
ie: "Is the sub for 11, he has 5."
Does that not fulfill our responsiblities??

I never said Billy did anything incorrect, excuse me if I'm wrong, but I thought we were in the business of improving day to day by thinking things through AFTER the game. Like, how could I have handled this better??

[M&M Guy]

Originally Posted by tref

(In my best Archie Bunker voice) Jeeeezzzz!!

Umm NO, sorry, never said THAT!
What I did say, in plain english mind you, was,
ie: "Is the sub for 11, he has 5."
Does that not fulfill our responsiblities??

I never said Billy did anything incorrect, excuse me if I'm wrong, but I thought we were in the business of improving day to day by thinking things through AFTER the game. Like, how could I have handled this better??

Ok, I wasn't entirely clear you were talking to the coach, rather than the table.

As far as what Billy said, I still see absolutely nothing wrong with what he told the coach. He certainly didn't say, "Hey, coach, #11's an idiot and needs to come out and sit next to the other idiots on the bench." In other words, I don't see where he said anything that could be construed as confrontational or demeaning, but rather professional and straight-to-the-point.

Sometimes something happens in the game that is totally outside our control, no matter what we do. Perhaps the coach was upset with a player not running a play correctly (for the 5th time that game), and it's the son of the school board president, which is why he took it out on Billy instead of the kid. Since the coach was a parent or volunteer, that person probably didn't understand the meaning of sportsmanship, and decided he wanted to "show the players he had their back"? Who cares if the stop sign sign didn't work? No matter what, the coach was wrong in their actions, and Billy did what was necessary. It wasn't Billy's fault the coach didn't understand the limits, and it's not our job to inform them or handle them any differently than if it was an actual coach.

It would be nice if there was some magic formula of words and actions that work every time to keep all our games under control. Unfortunately, there aren't, so it's best if we stick with the prescribed mechanics and rules.

[tref]

Originally Posted by Jurassic Referee

Just do your job and take care of what comes up. If something happens, deal with it.

As usual, jmo.

ie: "Is the sub for 11, he has 5."

Does that not fulfill our responsiblities??

Never seen so many people, in one place at one time with such a lack of reading comprehension skills. And to think some of you are decision makers

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally Posted by tref

1) My point was, if a team is getting hammered & they have a player foul out in a EOG situation & we go tell the coach something (11 has 5 fouls) that he has already taken care of... he gets to chirp about a call he thinks he should've got!

2) I hear you, coach instead of that's enough coach w/stop sign could've minimized the chances of Ts being thrown... especially when he hadn't said a word all game. OR maybe not, but putting ourselves in the best position to difuse situations as opposed to pouring gasoline on it is always better. Wouldn't ya say?

1) Why does any coach get to chirp about a call that he thinks he should've got? The rules explicitly say that he doesn't have the right to do that. I know there's real life, but coaches whining sureashell isn't a God-given right. He might get to chirp but I also get to tell him to stop his damn chirping.

2) And you're still missing my point. I really don't care what approach you take with the coach after his initial complaint. Personally, I have no problem with a warning but if you want to try something different than a warning and it works for you, hey, obviously your way is fine also. But if you do warn as Billy did in the original post, then I strongly believe that Billy had no choice but to do what he had to do dependant on subsequent events. All Billy did was react to the coach's refusal to shut up.

And to be quite honest, I also personally believe from a whole bunch of experience that saying "I hear you" wouldn't have changed anything in a situation like this. The coach had already made up his mind that he was going to get his complaints on the record and he really could care less at this point what you were saying to him. He's not really listening to you anyway. Either way, he's either going to make the complaint once to you and drop it or he's going to run with it and see how you react. He chose door #2 in this case and he went out that door because of his choice.

[tref]

Originally Posted by Jurassic Referee

1) Why does any coach get to chirp about a call that he thinks he should've got? The rules explicitly say that he doesn't have the right to do that. I know there's real life, but coaches whining sureashell isn't a God-given right. He might get to chirp but I also get to tell him to stop his damn chirping..

Absolutely!

Originally Posted by Jurassic Referee

2) And you're still missing my point. I really don't care what approach you take with the coach after his initial complaint. Personally, I have no problem with a warning but if you want to try something different than a warning and it works for you, hey, obviously your way is fine also. But if you do warn as Billy did in the original post, then I strongly believe that Billy had no choice but to do what he had to do dependant on subsequent events. All Billy did was react to the coach's refusal to shut up.

And to be quite honest, I also personally believe from a whole bunch of experience that saying "I hear you" wouldn't have changed anything in a situation like this. The coach had already made up his mind that he was going to get his complaints on the record and he really could care less at this point what you were saying to him. He's not really listening to you anyway. Either way, he's either going to make the complaint once to you and drop it or he's going to run with it and see how you react. He chose door #2 in this case and he went out that door because of his choice.

Point taken JR! With 45 seconds left & coach on his best behavior throughout the contest I'll choose to go with one of the following:
1. Ignore his whining STATEMENT
2. Nod yes.
3. I hear ya, coach
4. Hell, I might even stroke his ego & say, "You're right coach, I must've missed it. Will you send me the tape?"

Hahaha who gives a damn, its Miller time in 45 seconds...

Also, I believe the exceptional official responds vs. reacting to situations.

[Adam]

Originally Posted by Kingsman1288

From what you wrote, it sounds like you're talking to the table and trying to avoid the coach because of a little chirp he might make. As I said earlier, if you don't explicitly tell the coach the player has 5, that little chirp will turn into a big chirp soon.

I disagree, that statement is obviously directed towards the coach or it doesn't make any sense.
The table just told you it's five, so why would you tell the table the same thing? Personally, I normally ask the same question tref does here. You're fulfilling the responsibility while letting the coach know that you're paying attention. At the same time, coaches don't typically get snippy if I do it the other way; they just point to their sub and we move on.

[Kingsman1288]

Originally Posted by Snaqwells

I disagree, that statement is obviously directed towards the coach or it doesn't make any sense.

You're right, just went back and re-read it again. My mistake

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally Posted by Snaqwells

I disagree, that statement is obviously directed towards the coach or it doesn't make any sense.
The table just told you it's five, so why would you tell the table the same thing? Personally, I normally ask the same question tref does here. You're fulfilling the responsibility while letting the coach know that you're paying attention. At the same time, coaches don't typically get snippy if I do it the other way; they just point to their sub and we move on.

If I'm misreading the above, I apologize...but.....

It doesn't matter at all if the statement was obviously directed at the head coach. What matters is that the rules and mechanics state that you go to the head coach and inform him that his player just committed his fifth foul. If you don't do that, you haven't fulfilled your responsibility; you've completely ignored it. You sureashell are NOT fulfilling your responsibility in any way, shape or form by asking a question at the scorers table. The head coach is not supposed to be anywhere near the scorers table. That's a rule also.

[tref]

OMG dont backpedal NOW!

[Adam]

Originally Posted by Jurassic Referee

If I'm misreading the above, I apologize...but.....

It doesn't matter at all if the statement was obviously directed at the head coach. What matters is that the rules and mechanics state that you go to the head coach and inform him that his player just committed his fifth foul. If you don't do that, you haven't fulfilled your responsibility; you've completely ignored it. You sureashell are NOT fulfilling your responsibility in any way, shape or form by asking a question at the scorers table. The head coach is not supposed to be anywhere near the scorers table. That's a rule also.

You're right, and tref's statement, as I read it, is directed to the coach. If I'm reading it wrong, then I agree with you. However, the point is there's no prescribed wording for notifying the coach, nor is there anything that prevents us from asking the question, "is #5 the sub for #11" prior to stating, "that's 5 on #11."

I guess it seemed obvious to me that tref was simply proposing alternate wording to the notification rather than suggesting we speak to the basketball gods and assume coach hears us.