Check your balls
 

Well, have you ever had the feeling before a game something wasn't quite right? Have you ever started a game with the wrong size ball?

Nope, not me. Yet. :)

But, it does happen, even to some of the best in the country. Illinois and Oakland played for 7 minutes before the officials discovered they were playing with a women's ball. Coach Weber said in the post-game that some of his players had come up to him right away and said something seemed wrong, but he told them to just shut up and shoot better. Of course, the Oakland coach said he wanted to continue playing with it, since his team was leading at the time.

Oh ok, I thought the other balls check...:cool:

You would think that the official tossing the jump ball would notice. I can instantly tell if the wrong size ball is being used whenever I get my practice tosses in before the game. And even when I'm not the tossing official, during any sort of throw-in, if I can palm the ball easier or bounce pass the ball with a little bit more on it, that usually gets my attention.

Funny that the winning coach wanted to continue with the women's ball! :p

Something I do every game .... now. Last year JUCO womens, early Saturday afternoon game. Played for about 12 minutes before one of us decided to look at the ball. Players were all saying how they thought something wasn't quite right.

:o

This is actually a serious statement.
 

If you are not used to the woman's ball in your hands (insert jokes now please), then you can easily sometimes not notice the difference off the bat. I would say a couple of other things but I am afraid I would get banned if I kept talking about balls. :D

Peace

I did it one time during a JH girls game several years ago. We started with a men's ball for probably half of the first quarter. No one noticed because everything they shot was going in, which is unusual for JH girls. We figure it out during a stop in play at some point and switched.

I make sure I check now. I'm more likely to mess up and use a men's ball during a women's game than use a smaller ball for the men's game.

Thanks for the reminder, I'm sure it will happen this year now.

I'm just going to admire the title of this thread for a while...maybe we need to make this the second rule of officiating?

Havlicek stole the ball! It's all over! Johnny Havlicek stole the ball!"
 

Used a girls ball for the first half of a Catholic middle school boys game, first game of a boys/girls doubleheader, last year. I was the umpire. Site director brought it to our attention at halftime when he couldn't find the girls game ball.

Wow! I can't believe they didn't catch this. For me, I notice the difference immediately, more in weight as opposed to circumference. Any repercussions coming to crew on this one? I'm guessing yes....... Officials: Mike Sanzere, Ray Perone, Eric Curry


Could game be played under protest? No advantage either way.

I had an assigner tell me a story about how he had gone most of the first half of a women's college game with the men's ball. During a free throw, the shooter looked at it, then looked at him and said it was the wrong ball.

How many girl's basketball games do you work compared to all three of these official? I bet you work more girl's basketball games than they do as they are D1 Men's officials which eliminate their possibility to work woman's basketball for the most part. I am sure they probably do not even touch or see a woman's basketball most of the time. I am not on that level and I hardly see that smaller basketball so when I see it I have to pay attention. Some of the woman's basketballs have a marking of the size and that can be noticed easily, but all do not have the markings or they didn't at one point.

Peace

If it doesn't say 28.5, don't use it.

Point well taken, I have about an equal schedule plus I do a fair amount of kids games. Still, they should have caught this. I promise you it will never happen to that crew again.

I never understood doing 5-6 grade boys games why they play with men's ball.

Growing up in Iowa, we used the 28.5 ball through middle school.

I was not exonerating them totally. It should have been noticed as well as they should never have been given that ball in the first place by the school. Just saying it is not that noticeable if you never touch or see that ball.

I had this happen once in my career as well and I was working both sides on some level and we had a boy's ball on a girl's game. We played for few minutes with a boy's basketball and I even said, "This seems like a boy's basketball" but I was told that was the girl's ball. So we went with it until someone checked again and we figured it out. And this was before the markings on the girl’s basketball were more common. Schools should never put officials in that situation in the first place. The last thing we should have to worry about, are we playing with the regulation basketball.

Peace

Do you mean if it says that don't use it? ;)

Peace

LOL, yeah. I was thinking of the opposite problem. :D

It happened to me 10+ years ago. Played about a quarter with a guy's ball in a girl's game. I was T and the girl dribbled up the court saying "this is a guy's ball." We switched it right away. The JV officials played the entire game with the one we were using and no one noticed.

Now I check for 28.5 on the ball when doing a girl's game.

Going back before the gap, I think the smaller ball might have saved me 4 or 5 tosses per game. Still think the AP arrow was the best rule change during the 26 year continuum.

How's this for confusing? Two of the MS rec leagues I work use different sizes for 6th grade boys. One uses the 28.5 and the other uses the 30. Sometimes I get those different games on consecutive nights or maybe a few hours apart on a Saturday. Sometimes I have to check my copy of the rules to remember which ball to use for those games. Once last season, I asked my partner prior to a game and he just shrugged. It wasn't that he necessarily didn't know, he just didn't care.

At my age, anything that challenges my memory just adds to the general confusion in my so-called brain. :o

one size fits all
 

They ought to go back to one size. Bunch of wussies.:D

Suspend them all for two weeks.
Checking the game ball is a simple duty.
The only reason for not doing it properly is laziness.

Had a D1 official who would run a camp for the local board every summer. One of his tricks was to insert a womens ball into a game at halftime and see how long it would be before anyone noticed it.

From that time on, I have always paid attention to what ball was provided to play with at the start of each half.

I lost my battle to get the local 8-10 yr old league to stop using the men's ball ...

How about also issuing a "T" for using illegal equipment to any player who touched the ball?

Rules rulz!

Guilty as charged.

I was clock operator in a league tournament. Alternating varsity boys' and girls' games. After a couple of minutes in the second half of a boys' game, one of the officials came over to the table with the ball, and said, calmly, "Do you have another ball back there. This one doesn't seem to have enough air in it." He handed us the girls' ball, and we gave him the other one...which happened to be a boys' ball. I don't know that anyone, other than him, knew what was the problem.

I always thought that official was one of the best, and his handling of this problem reinforced my opinion.

That really is confusing considering the normal size for a ball is 29.5.

But we are MEN
 

In Washington State we use a women's ball for all MS games. I was checking the game ball before we started and noticed that it was a Men's ball. I mentioned it to the home coach and asked him for a smaller ball. He told me they only have the men's size and that is what they had been playing and practicing with. So, I went to the visiting coach and asked if they had a game ball we could use because the home team could only provide a men's ball. To which the whole visiting team of scrawny 7th graders puffed their chests, flexed their biceps and replied "but we are men".

They were that day as both teams had been using the men's size ball for practice and play.

Now that's what I'm talking about!!:D

Here We Go Again ...
 

Houston, we've had a problem.

Last night I went to watch a couple varsity games. After the opening tip, there was an OOB call, and the officials next to me are looking at the ball (other side of the court) and commenting that it looks funny. Sure enough, everyone on the court starts looking at it, and after a couple of seconds they request the boys ball.