Table Talk

[ChuckElias]

Sorry, Juulie, my wife's the Lutheran, not me.

Ok, here's my table talk.

Timer: Stop on every whistle, start when one of us "chops" the clock in. If you don't see a chop, then start it when you know someone on the floor has touched the ball. If there's an obvious mistake, we'll come over and fix it. Will you be able to put team fouls on the board for us?

Official Scorer: Your main job is the running score here at the top. That's the most important thing. If you can keep the individual points and the running score, great. If not, then you keep the score. Ok? Ok. I'll also need you to keep individual and team fouls. We shoot the bonus at the 7th foul, so when a team gets to 7, we need to know that RIGHT AWAY, ok? If somebody gets their 5th foul, we need to know that RIGHT AWAY, ok? Ok. We're going to come right in front of you and give you the color and number of the foul, but if you don't see or hear us clearly, have the timer buzz us and we'll come over and make sure we've got it right.

Visiting scorer: [Pointing to the official scorer] He/she is keeping the official score, so your main job is to make sure he/she isn't cookin' the books, ok? You guys compare notes after each basket, and if you don't agree with each other, we need to know that RIGHT AWAY, ok? [To both scorers] Ask the timer to buzz the horn at the first whistle and I'll come over and we'll get it straightened out.

Shot-clock operator: You've done this 1,000 times, right? Good, then you get the "short" version. There's only 4 times that the shot clock resets. 1) Any change of possession; that includes a made basket. But if the ball is knocked OOB and the offense is going to keep it, no reset. Same thing with the held ball. If it stays with the offense, no reset. 2) Any time the ball hits the rim on a shot. So if it bounces off somebody's head and hits the rim, it's not a reset. 3) Any time we have a foul, either personal or technical. 4) Any kicked ball. Last thing to remember is that during a throw-in, the shot clock starts as soon as the ball is touched; but on a rebound, the shot clock doesn't start until there is possession. Questions? Ok, if there's a problem, we'll just come over and fix it, but I'm sure we'll be fine.

Thanks, everybody.