What a game!
 

First round boys Div. 1. Great game but all kinds of goofy stuff. Warmups-visiting team leaves the floor, home team starts a full court 3-man weave! The Court Marshalls: Nope, sorry guys. Gotta stay on your half. Introductions- one starter from each team is wearing a compression sleeve that is not a single color. The Fashion Police step in: Sorry guys, can't wear it. Jump ball- is tapped by home team toward my sideline. Home player is able to make a one hand save and throws ball back into the court where a visiting player catches it. I notice table sets arrow toward home team. Shortly after we have an opportunity so I get my partners together and we discuss and all agree arrow should be>visitors. Have it changed, explain to coaches, everything is good. Close first half. Third quarter we have a goaltending call and right before quarter is over the ball is deflected OOB. The home coach picks up the ball, looks at it: "Bill, this is a girls basketball!"
OMG he's right! We've played nearly 3 full quarters with a girls basketball and nobody noticed. (don't blame me I wasn't the R. I was U2 of course) Only a few seconds left so we finish and have the game administration get a boys ball for the 4th. Fourth quarter great game. We have a team control foul during a throw-in. 1st of the year for me. Table and coach want to know why we're not shooting FT's. Have to explain. Home team player makes one of the most spectacular dunks I have ever seen in HS and gets fouled. Great call by partner. Game ends in a tie. First OT home team down 3 with :04 to go, kid lets fly a 3 and gets fouled! Makes the first, misses the next 2 but a teammate gets the rebound and puts it in with :02 and we go to second OT. Players are now fouling out both ways and visitors end up winning. This one is going to be hard to top the rest of the way for me. By the way, the Chardon boys team was supposed to follow our game but requested and was granted the game be moved to Thursday night. When I arrived tonight the team was at the tournament site practicing in the auxillary gym since they cannot use their own facilities as yet. The assistant tournament director said it's going to be a zoo there for the game. Local and national TV are requesting passes to report on the game.

Sounds like a busy night, not sure what happened tonight but check your lint trap. If the lint trap is clean all is well. Start again tomorrow.

The Chardon situation is very sad and is hard to put out of mind. Very hard to deal with.

3 quarters with a 28.5" ball and NO ONE noticed? :eek:
Nothing personal, but you can't put this off on the R.

Sounds like you needed a notepad in your back pocket for this one.

You can't put that 28.5 ball on the R...someone should have noticed that when they had the opportunity handle the ball. I know that if an easy time palming the ball, that gets my radar up.

But besides that, sounds like a hell of a game! http://forum.officiating.com/images/icons/icon14.gif

Remember that the legal range of sizes comes very close...circumference up to 29.0" for the girls and as low as 29.5" for the boys....which means the diameter difference would be as little as 0.15 inches...a measurement difference smaller than most people could perceive without a direct comparison. And the weight ranges meet.

Without another to compare side by side, I'd bet most would have trouble instinctively distinguishing between some that are at the nearest points of the two. Only looking for the labeling would be the sure way to tell.

I don't have anywhere near the experience as most on this board and I can tell a mens ball from a womens ball with ease

Sorry,was just joking about putting it on the R. (should have put a smiley in there) One of us should have noticed and wouldn't you think one of the 15-20 players who played up through the 3rd quarter would have felt the difference and said something to us? Talked to one of our state tournament observers and he said it's not the first time it's ever happened. Womens/Mens double header at CSU a few years ago - the men played the entire 1st half with the womens ball. Oh well, lesson learned!
(Scratch85, was up REAL early this morning checking the trap!)

For their sake I hope the Chardon folks can keep the media at bay...and I say this being a member of the media.

Billy,
I'm intrerested in the crew's conversation regarding the "one-hand save, and throws the ball back and the opponent catches it," that resulted in the initial possession arrow set. Apparently, you determined that it was a catch and not a bat, and thus possession, on the save? Just curious.
Thanks, Rob

Usually, I can too....but the point is that most of them are not near the edge of the legal ranges. There might be a few out that that are "oversized" enough to make it very hard to tell.

Glutton for Punishment?
 

Wow! What an agenda of issues all in one game! Good job on that one.
I'm not begging for what you've gone through, but I am looking forwarding to more than the blowout/uneventful contests experienced thus far. One third of the way through post-season schedule, so maybe some challenging games and interesting experiences are yet to come.
Then again, "be careful what you ask for" might be sage advice -- maybe blowout/uneventful isn't all that bad after all. :)

That's correct, Rob. The save was definitely not a bat or tap. The ball was controlled in one hand and thrown back into the court. I wanted to communicate with my partners first as to what I saw before making any decision to change the arrow. The R obviously had his back to the play following the toss and U1 from tableside didn't have the angle on the play that I did to know for sure.

Thanks, Billy. One of the things I see in some games, is a lack of attentiveness to the first possession, and set of the arrow. Nice job!
It's one of those things that gets little attention in training meetings. Your description will be helpful, in the training and mentoring I do.
Thanks, again.