Telling Teams Direction They Are Going?
 

As referees, are we obligated to tell the teams which way are going at the start of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th quarters?

I had an instance where a player came up to me and said, "Hey, I know which way we are going, but we are going to run a trick play."

I always say the color and point before the quarter starts. I don't make a show of it, though.

Me: "That's great. Blue!" (while pointing the proper way so everyone can see it).

tell? Yes (but as with all mechanics, when in rome...)

Make sure the defense is at the right end? No.

I have had this happen several times. I have just got into the habit of moving the the division line and hold the ball on the side that we should be going. If asked which way we are going by ANY player, I just answer with the color...Something like "It's blue's ball."

We are not obligated to help a team with a trick play.

I point and give a color to both teams at the start of every quarter or half. Why would I avoid doing so just so a team can run something that will likely bring me trouble?

Thankfully, I've had one team tell me they're doing this in the last 20 years and the defense didn't buy it for a second.

Er, the mechanics manual might help.
 

Starting a Period:
1. The throw-in to start the second, thrid, and fourth quarters and any extra period shall be administered by the Referee at the division line opposite the table.
2. Indicate color and direction, designate the throw-in spot, sound the whistle to alert players that play is about to begin, place the ball at the thrower's disposal.

I too have had several teams try this, mostly AAU stuff. The team that tries it always ended up losing the game, usually pretty bad. It just tells me they trying to pull every trick in the book and the coach always has a behavior problem.

Why? I mean, why not point as the mechanics manual tells us to do?

Except when I coached and my first game coming out of halftime I told my inbounder to let the official know we know which way we were going. We had everything down to a tee. Except the inbounding official that told the defense at least 5 times which way they were going and that we were lined up on the wrong side of the court. I was more surprised that I didn't get a T after that.

Why is this a behavior problem? It's just strategy and preparing your players to understand game situations.

I would wager he just didn't know what the mechanics manual said. I don't think he would intentionally do something different.

He's not calling *this* a behavior problem. It is, however, highly correlated with coaches who do have behavior problems.

Note, those behavior problems are shared between the coaches and their players, most of the time.

Good for that official. :D

:( Those would have been my teams first 2 points of the game :eek: