Questioning Partner's Call

[Raymond]

Originally Posted by Afrosheen

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Unfortunately, you don't know how AAU works. Teams pay money to play in these tournaments, so yes having a bad crew does leave a feeling of being screwed. But this was one call and I don't believe that this particular call screwed them all that much. And giving more attention to the call was sufficient for the coach despite the fact that it went against him in the end.
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I beg to differ on this. My 9-to-5 job is 5 minutes from the Boo Williams Sportsplex, meaning I work and watch plenty of AAU ball. I am personal friends with the local AAU assignors, so I get to hear all the behind the scenes conversations concerning the coaches and officials, including when officials are at fault and when the coaches are at fault. And the national coorindator for AAU officials sits in that building every weekend during AAU season.

In a situation like yours, none of the powers that be would want another official questioning his partner based the reaction of an AAU coach. We go to our partners for one reason, to provide definite information. If I know a rule is being kicked, I will pull my partner away from the bench area and discuss it with him. But in the end, it will still be up to my partner to adjudicate as he sees fit.

In a college camp this past summer (during a high level AAU tournament) I had a play where I had the crew administer the throw-in at the wrong spot after my own inadvertent whistle. The most experienced official, by far, on the crew, tried to get me to change my mind but I was hard-headed. He didn't make a scene or extend the conversation, he just let me have my way. But, after the game he jumped in my a$$ and so did an off-duty observor who was watching the game.

Now, if your partner is too sensitive to handle post-game criticisms or critiques from you, in your capacity as an assignor, then maybe he is not somebody who should be getting games from you. But during the game, you are just an official, just like him.

[Afrosheen]

Originally Posted by BadNewsRef

In a situation like yours, none of the powers that be would want another official questioning his partner based the reaction of an AAU coach. We go to our partners for one reason, to provide definite information. If I know a rule is being kicked, I will pull my partner away from the bench area and discuss it with him. But in the end, it will still be up to my partner to adjudicate as he sees fit.

In a college camp this past summer (during a high level AAU tournament) I had a play where I had the crew administer the throw-in at the wrong spot after my own inadvertent whistle. The most experienced official, by far, on the crew, tried to get me to change my mind but I was hard-headed. He didn't make a scene or extend the conversation, he just let me have my way. But, after the game he jumped in my a$$ and so did an off-duty observor who was watching the game.

It wasn't solely on the basis of the coach's reaction. He reacted before I even got to my partner so really that was not at issue. I merely brought it up to say that instead of giving him a T, I told him that I would talk to my partner about it so he would calm down as I went up to my partner to fetch the ball.

After I talked to my partner, I didn't chew him out after the quarter was over. I in fact apologized to him as I've stated many many many times in this thread. Though it was a conditional apology, and because it was a conditional apology this official sought to invalidate the conditional by trying to prove my reasoning wrong with a lazy attempt at reading the rulebook.

As I said at the beginning I am not willing to cut a guy, or admonish a guy or be extreme in any way. I guess I'm more self-critical than most people where I should be giving myself credit for not being as rude like your partner and the observer who chewed you out on a kicked call.

I just wanted to know how you all used the opportunity to confer with your partner on a egregiously kicked call, like the one that AremRed posted earlier from a game with Tom Izzo. I would hope everyone here would be as willing as the officials in that game of conferring with the calling official and give the calling official to opportunity to correct his mistake to get the call right.

However, as I just experienced, there are many hard headed officials, and I'm not going to overrule my partner if he's too prideful to correct his mistake. I'll be willing to eat it and tell the coach that he should ask my partner if it's something that I can't defend.

But I'm not going to accept that because the official is young or inexperienced that I'm not going to go up to him and gently talk to him about the call in the most prudent way without making him feel rejected or ashamed on the spot.