The importance of a good pre game
 

Last night I worked a game, about my 50th or so for the season, It was a match up of 2 top 5 boys varsity teams in our area.

In the locker room, R says, it's almost the end of the season, we've been doing this all year, let's let them play and keep it clean.

That was pre game.

This was the first time I worked with U2 this year, 2nd time with R ( first time was game 2 of the season.

The problem was switching. over 90% of crews I work with wait for the ball to drop below the FT line to switch. These guys didn't. They would switch long before the ball dropped below the line even if the ball never dropped below the line.

I missed 3 switches. 2 were important as there was a BC call and on the other, there was a foul, both of those times, partners picked it up, but they should have been my call if I had seen the switch sooner. nothing happened on the other switch I missed and I caught it soon enough.

But my point is, in a good pre game, they could have said, we are switching early and often.

As I said, well over 90% of my partners wait til the ball comes below the FT line and that's what I was expecting. Live and learn.

I had one partner that was the R and he said, if lead is on the right and ball is coming to front court on the left, switch before the ball crosses the half court line and we did, it worked well, but we knew that before we went on to the floor.

It's rotating, not switching, that you are discussing.

Are the other 2 NCAA officials?

Do you mean rotations that the Lead initiates? I have never heard that called "switching". Switching is usually what you do after the foul is called when you switch from Lead to Trail or vice versa.

If you have pressing action high, the old C, new T should initiate the rotation. Is that what happened? That's pretty standard.

While it depends on the type of defense and offense being played, waiting for the ball to drop below the FT line is "old school." Generally, if C is looking at the ball, L should be at least thinking about moving, especially if the post player goes to that side.

Still, all in an association should be on the same (or similar) page. Without seeing the plays, it's tough to opine on whether they rotated too soon or not.

I concur with Bob. Waiting until the ball comes low is old school thinking. Move early and often and don't let your C be on-ball if you can prevent it.

That said, I never initiate a rotation unless all 3 officials are in the frontcourt.

You're right, I meant to say rotating.

With most of the other officials I worked with all year, we worked trail sideline to sideline and kept the C where they were if the ball was above the FT line. Trail would come to mid court to see the action.

I am not saying they rotated too soon, I wasn't expecting the rotation. It was my bad for sure.

The standard here is if the ball is dribbled, or the C starts a count, the lead should cross over. That may change if the skip passes show up regularly.

I will initiate in transition once a game or so.

That's a wide coverage area for T. What's the thought process?

Not to mention real bad positioning if there's a steal and fast break...with the T in the middle of the action.

Just what we have done for about 7 or 8 years. I would say it comes from working 2 man for years, T has sideline to sideline in 2 man.

As I have said before, we have 52 officials in the association, I would say about half are over 40, 1/3 over 50. I am 57, but I started refereeing 12 years ago. Most of the older officials have refereed for over 20 years. Most have never gone to camps, I have not. I would say we have about 7 or 8 guys that have gone to camps and they do college also.

Forgive me if I'm being rude, but that's horrible court coverage -- you're taking one advantage of having 3 officials and throwing it away.

It would be better in that situation if the C would initiate a rotation, pulling the L across the lane -- it gives the new T the ball-handler on his own side of the court (and allows him to step out to get a better position on the floor) and allows the L to officiate the post players that will likely start posting up on that side.

Woeful Words in My Book
 

Forgive me for being a plumber, but when I hear this from the assigned R, I immediately start hearing the theme music from the movie Jaws playing inside my head . . . then I initiate our usual pregame.

"Let's let them play..." is usually followed about 45 minutes later by a gripe session at halftime about how rough and out-of-control the teams are.

Now, back to the flushing . . .

It really seems to me you're short changing the idea of a three person game. What exactly is your C's coverage area, then?

Not much according to most of my partners.

Watch for off ball stuff in the lane area, but only half of the lane. And rebound responsibilities.

This is a good thread for me to learn from.

Have to agree with most of the others here...seems like your group is missing the point of having the third official out there and asking way too little of the C.

In terms of your initial comments about Pre-game conferences...any time you are uncomfortable about the Pre-game, just ask some question. Things like:

Hey, had this weird situation last week. How do we want to handle it if....

Or

What do we want to do tonight if there is a lot of trapping in the backcourt?

You can get a lot accomplished in the Pre-game simply by asking questions.

You guys cover schools in West Virginia and Maryland? Mike Eades, Ted Valentine, and Al Battista would not be happy to hear this about your 3-man philosophies.