And that is why some official's judgments are put in higher regard than others. And when assignments come out, some get certain assignments and others are sitting on the sidelines no matter what terms or phrase you use.

Peace

For us newer officials, is there any guidance you can give to differentiate minnows from whales?

I have been taught three things about calling out of my PCA:
1. Absolutely if it's flagrant / technical.
2. Save the crew (related to #1)
3. Be late, be right, be needed.

Whales are marine mammals, whereas minnow is a common term used for small fish.

4. Know who you are working with.

I live 15 minutes from a D1 college, so I've often been invited to work their scrimmages over the years by one a local Big Dawg. One time a fellow D3 colleague made a call from the Trail in front of the Lead (Big Dawg). On the sideline when discussing the play, another mini-Big Dawg bascially said, if Mr. "Big Dawg" is passing on that contact, you shouldn't be coming out of your primary to make that call.

On the other hand, this summer I worked a camp and worked with a brand new official, so made at least 3-4 calls in front him and after the game Ed Malloy thanked me for extending my coverage to grab those fouls.

This is something you either understand or you don't. And yes you could be given some guidance, but that is going to come with seeing these plays on video or watch games live and talk to the people that are making these decisions. After all we have people here that claim that things are missed in slow motion but do not tell you how you are going to make the call or how you would see the entire play even when video is shown. There is no magic bullets to this thing. And most of all you have to work with enough people and see enough plays and understand the interpretations to know what should or should not be done on any given situation IMO.

Peace

In the OP, what makes it so bad is the combination of all things:

1. The distance. This is actually the least of it. In a two man game, when you have a couple of turnovers and have all players spread out in transition, making a call a long distance away is not so unusual, and sometimes necessary.

2. It was right in front of me. There was no question of me being screened from the play or watching something else. It was all mine.

3. As others have said, it must really be something big to consider a whistle here and this definitely was not.


When you combine all the factors, I felt that it was hard to overstate to him how serious this was. I told him that for him to have a whistle here it should involve a big long roundhouse kick to the groin or something similar, followed by a significant pause to be sure his partner wasn't going to get it. And I then went on to explain that he shouldn't even have a whistle then, because he shouldn't have seen it because of where he was and where this exchange had taken place.

Meh this doesn't sound so bad- especially for a 2nd year guy.

A few years ago I had a partner who has been around 30 years (30 to many) call a travel 6 feet in front of me on the low block. He's trail. I'm lead. Kid does not travel and I hear tweet tweet tweet tweet tweet tweet travel.

I take a deep breath and put the ball back in play. Then this guy whack's the coach because the coach is justifiably pissed. I asked him at the quarter break why he called a travel that wasn't a travel. He tells me that travels in the key are the trails call.

It was a long night.

Well he is right. When there is post play Trail is responsible for the travel. Not saying there was a travel but he is not wrong to call it if he sees it.

One of my weak points in my basketball officiating... If I'm the lead, and there's a post player in my area with the ball, and she travels... I'll only notice the travel about 15% of the time. I'm watching upper body contact, looking for traveling violations in that situation is something I'm not very good at yet.

I always tell my partners that if they call a travel on a post player when I'm lead... I'm totally ok with it.

Here in my neck of the woods we put first year officials in varsity contests...when I say "we" I mean my pool of course of which I have zero input in decisions.

No way they are ready!!

While you'll never be able to see them all from the lead, you'll see a lot more if you take 1-2 steps back from the play...either away from the endline or away from the lane. Doing so will give you a much better view of the players from head-to-toe and it might even improve your ability to see some types of fouls too.

I'd like to introduce you to some of our smaller, older gyms. "Back up" would mean "climb the wall." :D

Where I have room, I work D-E-E-P. Sometimes, you just do the best you can, and that includes the T/C helping out with travels down low or in the lane.

Understand that in some necks of the woods, there are varsity games that are perfect for newer officials to learn to be veteran officials. Especially outside of district play when games are sometimes 70-13.

I do the same thing, when I can. But in about half of the gyms around here there's less than 10 feet from endline to wall, sometimes as little as 4 feet.

When I have space, it's not uncommon for me to be 15 feet off the endline as the lead.