Football to Basketball Transition

[BktBallRef]

In college football, you pretty much have to put up with a lot from coaches. I have a friend who is a D1 referee in a BCS conference, who has worked 3 bowl games and the conference championship game this year. I've seen D1 coaches chew him up. And although he stood his ground, there was no flag.

Same guy will ring your a$$ up in a HS basketball game as quickly as anyone I know.

Now, do you need to have the same mentality? Perhaps not but you do need to know that the same behavior that's tolerated in a college football game should not be condoned in a HS basketball game. Your expectations need to be different.

I offer a few items:

1- I don't tolerate assistant coaches yelling, running their mouth and jumping up when they don't like a call. Assistant coaches are there to coach. They have no business officiating and most officials I know have zero tolerance for them. I have no problem answering a question that's asked in a respectful manner but that's where it ends. That maybe different than what you tolerate on the sideline during the fall.

2- I use this philosphy with regard to head coaches.

If he's out of the coaching box, I'll politely put him back in it. If he's rolling his arms with a traveling call, I'll ignore him. If he's running his mouth, I'll tell him when I've had enough.

If he's out of the box and running his mouth, WHACK!
If he's out of the box and officiating, WHACK!
If he's running his mouth and officiating, WHACK!

IOW, if he's guilty of one sin, I can overlook that. But if he's guilty of two, that's too much sinning. WHACK!

3 - Talk to me they way you want me to talk to you. Ask me questions and I'll answer when it's appropriate to do so. I don't respond to statements. And if I tell you I've heard enough, then by God I've heard enough.