Surreal technical foul
 

Working a JUCO men's game this afternoon, I called a routine foul against a player from the visiting team. They committed quite a few of those out of the gate in the second half, BTW.

As I was going to report it, the player, politely as can be, asked me, "When are you guys going to stop cheating us?"

I politely whacked the player, who seemed amazed as he asked me, "Can't I ask you a question?"

The coach subbed the player. As we were shooting free throws I stole a glance at the bench and I could tell the coach asked the player what he said. The player told him. The coach's head sank slowly into his hands.

We ran into the coach on the way out and he asked me if that was the easiest technical foul I'd ever called. I said it was certainly the strangest.

I had the exact same thing when I did intramurals in college. Happened right at the scorers table. The player said it, I T'd him, one of the supervisors just shook her head at the player. Not the easiest T ever, but certainly up there.

Conference championship game last year, home team leading but fouling almost uncontrollably. I'm waiting to administer a FT for yet another foul. The star player, a special education kid, said to his teammate across the lane, "Shake it off man, it's 8 against 5." I tweeted softly and brought one pointer finger down on top of the other. Coach asked "What did he say?" I told him.

He buried his head in his hands and then pulled him out. I heard him say, "Coach, I didn't say anything to him."

"Son, when I told you don't say anything stupid to the refs, that also meant don't say anything stupid in front of the refs!"

When he came back in the game, "Sorry ref." I smiled. "It's okay partner. But never accuse an official of cheating."