We had a girls MS game recently wher we played an entire half without a held ball. I didn't realize it until the opposing coach tried to contest the possession arrow after halftime, claiming that we had won the tip and there had been no held ball (he was correct on the second count, but we had nver controlled the ball on the tip and it went OOB to them - our arrow). This led to several questions on my part regarding no held balls in girls MS.

1) Is this some kind of record - should I call Guiness now?

2) Isn't this some kind of violation?

3) Does anything that happened in the first half really count?

Cute! :)

Perhaps this is a correctable error.....

Have the teams switch benches and start the game over.... with a different colored ball.

How could you have let this happen?

Violation, playing defense with feet and not hands! I'm not sure of the approriate signal though.

Come back to the board when you wake up.

You must have been working in a different country.

A middle school girls game with no held balls for an entire half is probably a record, and a definitely miracle!

Excellent response Tony. Perhaps you have come upon the answer, both to these questions, and that longtime question about female hoops, "Where on earth did the WNBA come up with that orange and white ball?"

I must make clear that, as a coach, I was the one person who could not impact this no held ball situation. Every time I go on the court, I get T'd - but that's another thread!

as for why the refs never saw a held ball, I don't know. Joe Paterno told me that they were Big Ten refs from Michigan (and I am still trying to figure out why it matters). Last I heard, he was still chasing them demanding the first half be replayed.

Record? No. In my rookie season, the game I was evaluated on was a girls JV game in which we survived the entire game without a held ball. See if I ever use a girls JV game for an evaluation again.

Violation? Yes. As a coach you should be scoulding the girls about going after loose balls.

I have learned since doing varsity games: Don't judge a game by the first half. The second half is when you start ejecting coaches that you thought were wonderful in the first half.

Hawks' Coach -- do you play running time halves? Why was there no qrrow used at the beginning of the the second quarter? That would be where the refs should warn the caoches, that if there weren't some held balls, things were going to get too masculine!

Fall league, so yes, 16 minute halves, running time except in last minute, etc. So no second quarter this time - and yes, it does go much quicker that way so it's not like a full half of basketball. The game started at 8:30 AM (like half our games this fall), I haven't even finished my coffee, its halftime, and I forgot to yell at the refs. What a tough life we coaches lead.

And Tim, you nailed it on the head, by the way. My girls got an earful about their defensive effort in that game. But we'll take a win any way they come and follow up with some fun defense only practices as a reward for a good effort.