Advice on how to handle mouthy players

[JugglingReferee]

Originally Posted by ballgame99

Did a freshman game last night with a bunch of whiners. Mostly just "oh my GOD!" and "he's hacking me!!" type comments. Nothing that would, in my opinion, warrent a T on its own, although I did hear one "that's bullcrap!" I thought about Ting that one up, but stopped myself. I'm a fairly new ref so I would like to hear what an appropriate way to nip this stuff in the bud. Because once they started whining they didn't stop.

The one team even started making little jab comments during free throws.

Thanks.

Had this just 3 weeks ago. After it happened the first time, I went to the coach and told him that "14 was commenting after the play". I continued, "If there are any questions, they can come from you or a captain, but we will not entertain general comments".

Problem solved.

It did happen later in the game, but the player realized what they were doing, and then changed their comment to a question. I was ok with that. She was complaining about being hacked. We were in a dead ball time because we had called a foul for the player being hacked. I guess she didn't realize that.



T when they say "bull****". My other advice is to nip it in the bud. If it's repetitive, you have to deal with it, and the sooner the better. Technical fouls often come from (a) profane, (b) personal, or (c) persistent. If a team/player is persistently complaining/commenting, then deal with it early to avoid a technical foul.

[Welpe]

My tolerance on what I will allow from a player before T'ing them up is perhaps a little on the low side but I think context for "bullcrap" would be important to me. How loud was it? Was it that word exactly? If it's not very loud the first time, I'm going to let it go with a word of warning to the player, captain or coach.