Game report

[ChuckElias]

A couple people have asked about my game yesterday. I worked a D3 conference tournament first round game. It was the 2-seed vs. 7-seed. I worked with two very experienced officials, a D1 official and a former D1 official. I was very obviously the "junior" official the game.

The first half was extremely well-played, very close score. At halftime, the home team was up by 6 and the crowd was stunned. They're used to seeing 15-point halftime leads, but the visitors were playing extremely hard. The second half was anti-climactic, as the home team hit 2 3-pointers to open the lead to 10 and never looked back. It ended up being about a 22-point win.

I felt like I did a very credible job. A couple of things that I kicked myself for: from the C, I reached way out of my area and called a borderline foul right in front of the L. Normally, maybe not so bad, except the play was spinning right to him, so he had a great look. I should've laid off. That's one that I wanted back.

First half, I was C, right in front of defense's bench. A1 makes a quick move, where he probably made an illegal "shuffle" of the pivot foot before starting the dribble. It was so quick, I'm pretty sure I missed it. A1 cut around B1 and was tripped by B2 in the lane. Somebody on this board wrote recently, "Never let a player travel into a foul", and I think that's exactly what I did. Needless to say, defensive coach was not happy.

I called a shooting foul, but I didn't have a good look at the shooter's feet, so I indicated two shots. Partner came to me and said it was definitely a 3. I just didn't see it. Grrrrrr.

As Lead, I initiated a rotation, and just as I got halfway across the lane, the kid drove to the basket. He missed the shot and we were off to the races the other way. I finished crossing the lane, but neither partner had rotated with me, so in transition, I slid back to the other side. I'm still not completely comfortable with initiating rotation.

Other than that, I felt pretty good about my game. The "coach's comment" of the game came in the first half, when it was still a very tight ballgame. A1 shoots a 3-pointer from the top of the key. He is leaning backwards, away from B1 and as he lands, there is very minor contact between A1 and B1. A1 falls backwards on his butt. Coach A screams that I'm not "protecting my shooters". I pointed at the floor and said "He was already back to the floor", when the contact occured. Coach A says, "This is going to be a short post-season for you, Chuck!" I almost laughed, considering that my post-season was 40 minutes longer than I ever expected it to be!

Anyway, overall a positive experience to finish up my college season. Good luck to everyone else who is working a post-season game this week or next!

Chuck