First playoff assignment

[Scrapper1]

Originally Posted by A Pennsylvania Coach

I just got my first playoff assignment!

Well-deserved congratulations! Excited and nervous is just about right, I would say!

It's a three-person game and I haven't done many of those. Quite a few in the summer but not much this season. Any advice from the vets?

Couple of things.

1) Since you haven't worked a lot of 3-whistle, there will be a natural tendency to think about where you're supposed to be. That's totally understandable, since you haven't worked it enough for positioning and PCA's to be second-nature. Wherever you find yourself on the floor, don't forget to officiate! When I first started, I was so worried about whether I was exactly on the free throw line extended as the C, that I wasn't really focused enough on officiating screens and weak side post plays. It's good to be where you're supposed to be, but it's not as important as calling plays.

2) Over-communicate. It's possible that your partners won't have much more 3-whistle experience than you have. Any chance you get, make sure you're on the same page.

3) As everybody else has said, work your primary area hard and trust your partners to do the same in their areas. We all know that our accuracy goes down when we reach outside our primary. That doesn't mean you ignore an ax-murder, just because it's on the opposite block; but I think you know what I'm trying to say.

Try to have fun! You've been here for a long time and working hard to get better. You deserve it. Have a great game.