Question from a coach
 

I'm a varsity boys coach. I run into a consistent problem during games and I would like your advice on how to approach this with officials respectfully and productively.

My point guard is a small kid, but he is quicker and stronger than 95% of the guys guarding him. We run the popular dribble-drive offense and he's constantly penetrating. To defend him, our opponents have to hand check, bump, and push him. When they get away with it just a little, the next possession they do it more. And then a little more. And since the kid is physically able to withstand the pressure, he doesn't get knocked down...but he's obviously unable to get where he wants to go, and it isn't because he's being legally guarded.

There are games where the officials start off calling it tight, but when they see the scoreboard say that the fouls are 4-0 in mid-first quarter, they back off on the whistles and my opponent can resort to whatever tactics they want. I see this problem as twofold: the officials consciously or subconsciously don't want to "be here all night" by putting one team in the bonus that early, AND they want the fans to see that the game is being called fairly by making the fouls closer on the scoreboard. In both cases the rulebook is thrown out the window and we lose our advantage.

The bottom line is that I feel my player is punished for simply being tougher and stronger than his opponents, and the result is that our advantage in the game (in this case, having the best player on the court that almost nobody can guard) is not maximized. The officials are a big part of this, as all they need to do is call the game according to the rules, and this kid will either make his living at the free throw line 20 times a night, or he'll score at will, or the opponent will have no choice but to adjust and back off of him. The officials seem to consistently feel that it's their job to adjust to my opponent, not the other way around.

How should I communicate this issue with officials before or during my games? Do you have advice on how to deal with the officiating crew that does not seem to see this player through the same lens as everybody else on the floor?

Thank you, I appreciate your taking the time to read my post. To give some more context to the circumstances, I'm a fairly polite guy with officials--perhaps to a fault--and my players generally follow my lead on that. So none of this strikes me as officials holding a grudge against me or my team due to a personality clash. I really just want to know what to tell them or how to explain my argument in such a way that will help them call the game fairly.

Sir, with all due respect, you seem to have more answers than questions. If you are dealing with officials who are affected by a 4-0 foul count, don't want to be there all night, and don't call the game according to the rules, I see your situation as hopeless.

My suggestion: Send video of one of your team's games to whomever assigns officials in your area. If this is an issue I'm sure the assignor/supervisor will address it with their staff.

My Two Cents ...
 

If your opponents are effecting his rhythm, speed, quickness, or balance, then these are, most certainly, fouls.

Is it possible that he is able to "get through" the contact, and thus, even with the contact, he is able, with his speed, to get past his opponents. If so, the officials may be seeing this as incidental contact, with no advantage gained by the defense, and thus, no foul.

Some strong, quick players don't avoid contact, especially if they know that they can "get through" it. If it looks like a pinball game out there, he may be creating some of the contact, not enough for a player control foul, but some of the contact may be of his own volition.

This is 100% poor officiating. Are these young officials that you are discussing, or are they veterans?

Consciously, or subconsciously, this is poor officiating.

Once again, good officials don't do this.

Again, if it's a pinball game out there, he may be creating some of the contact.

Often a coach will exclaim "It's 4-0" -- maning "stop calling 'fouls' on us."

You can counter with "even though it's 4-0, keep it up"

Why do coaches always assume they know why officials are doing something or calling something one way or the other?

Is it possible that after 4-0, the other team adjusts and what was called is not happening any more? I am sometimes floored how because the game is not called the way a coach thinks, it is somehow a conspiracy as to why. Could it just be the teams adjusted and what was obviously a foul is harder to call?

Peace

CoachJW:

Thanks for the post. A few thoughts...

After opening night in my neck of the woods, I was lurking our state's fan message board. There was one particular thread regarding officials calling "too many" fouls. In one game, 76 fouls were called.

Of course, you had your typical "no fan wants to see that" comments, and squarely blamed the officials for making the games frustrating to watch. As I look back, I didn't see as many complaints since opening night, and my best guess is the players adapted. My point is, we shouldn't care what the fans think. As you correctly point out, we have a job to do.

As to how you can address what you see, I say in every pre-game to "question whatever you like, as long as you're civil about it." (No-one has ever taken advantage of this to where they're questioning everything.) I don't know how you can be polite "to a fault." Granted, every official has his individual threshold, but I don't see how you can go wrong with polite requests and questions. I also like JMF's suggestion of suggestion of a video to the supervisor(s). We're always learning.

Keep on advocating, sir. Good luck the rest of the season.

As my New York colleague says, this is something you address with the supervisor of officials. Trying to address this with individual officials will just lead to frustration.

A good supervisor will address this with his/her officials if there is a problem, or be direct and candid with you and let you know your complaints are unfounded.

That is assuming the coach's version of events is accurate; still, he and we do not know what is going on in the minds of the officials.

What coaches, players and fans don't understand is that there's only 2 (or 3) people in the entire gym who don't care which team wins the game.

And no, I don't mean the guys at the concession stand.

I Can't Believe That I'm Agreeing With Mark Padgett ...
 

Officials are on the court to be the only unbiased arbiters of the game. Officials are not concerned with who wins or loses, but only fairness and safety. Everyone else in that gym cares about winning, and therefore cannot look at the game objectively. Players commit fouls and violations; officials view those infractions, judge the action, and then apply the rules of the game to what they had viewed. The rules then determine the penalty.

First of all, this is all conjecture. Unless the officials tell you these things, which I highly doubt, then you have no idea what they're thinking or why things may change in the course of a game.

Secondly, I would do as has been suggested: send a tape to the person who assigns games and ask for his honest feedback. You may be surprised at the response.

We were ask to clean the game up.Hand check was a big topic in off season.Now we have double bonus in every game this year.I ref and will never look at the team fouls,but with the game over late in 30 point contest is a hand check call important maybe for the losing team,but in close game it will be called.Every ref calls the game differently but being consitent is important.The ref who will not be there long, needs not to call.

I am a volleyball coach and official and I have learned a ton about officiating from the guys (and girls) on this site. I have coached and officiated each for over 20 years so since you asked for advice, I'll chime in.

If you want to know how to effectively talk to an official, become an official. I'm not saying give up coaching and only officiate. I'm saying to add officiating to your resume. I'm lucky in that high school girls play volleyball in the fall and high school boys play in the spring so I can coach one and officiate the other. I realize that in most (if not all) states girls and boys high school basketball seasons run concurrently. That shouldn't stop you from coaching a high school team and then officiating a different level (middle school, grade school) or rec leagues or AAU.

Not only will you learn to look at games and situations differently, you will gain more rules knowledge and a better understanding of what officials are looking at and for. (sorry about ending that sentence with a preposition:eek:) You'll also experience many instances of communicating with coaches and you'll learn how to effectively communicate with officials. Hopefully you'll also earn the respect of fellow officials who then won't look at you when you coach as one of the many rules-challenged coaches that they often encounter. That doesn't mean that you should expect favorable treatment, just that they may be more willing to give you an ear than they would a clueless coach.

And lastly, you'll learn that many times officials are correct when there is disagreement with coaches! It constantly amazes me that coaches (even those that I consider to be high-level coaches) simply don't know the rules and argue about calls and decisions that are clearly correct.

1. I do not think it is ever a good idea for a coach to tell an official before the game that they have a player who is too good to be legally defended and is fouled constantly without getting any calls. So I would recommend you refrain from addressing this before any game starts. If you tried this with me, I would put you on ignore immediately.

2. Once the game starts, you can ask legitimate questions about specific plays where you thought your player was fouled and no call was made. I would not recommend you do this often, only on the most obvious ones.

3. I am sure the coaches, players, and fans of the opposing team do not see your player in the same light as you do.

4. If your player is as good and strong as you say, he is probably playing through a lot of the contact and is not having his rsbq affected.

Coaches can say things during the game, I know why I do not personally call something or not call something. I do not need their help. It gets me to ignore them even during the game. They need to worry about their job, not worrying about telling me how to do mine.

Peace

johnny d: Come On Down ...
 

Bingo.

You will never be able to communicate with an official respectfully if you think they need help being "fair".

Until that attitude is eliminated, you will never be able to effectively communicate with an official.

I'm also picking up a possibility that the kid is forcing his way into traffic frequently -- and players that drive into traffic and initiate contact are just not going to get the fouls called that his coach wants to see called.

A good possibility at that.... I'd be willing to bet we all encounter this.

My suggestion to the coach is to ask the official what he's/she's seeing out there. The coach may not like the answer, but at least the coach now knows the officials perspective on the action and the coach can adjust or have the players adjust accordingly.

To infer that the game isn't being called fair shows how little respect the coach has for officials.

It also, in my opinion, indicates an over inflated understanding of the impact a coach can have by "working the refs."

But they heard the announcers talk about it, so it must be true....

I would love a independent study where some of you are paid to walk into HS Gyms around the country and evaluate BV games. I believe you will see a lot of below average officials even working these games. And I would love to be wrong. There are a lot of guys that are really old or really dont get into full gear until half way into the season. And I dont think many of those referees come here to study and get better.

A young official when to watch his brother's (Soph) Varsity game. Very large school and one of the Varsity refs was a past association president and had done some major play off games during his 20+ years career. And all three of them didnt sit down the coach for a pregame dunk and started the game with a jump ball.

You guys are the cream of the crop when it comes to rules knowledge, game management, philosophies, etc, That is not what the majority of JV and Var guys are around the country. That would be my bet. So to say a very talented kid might not be getting the full benefit of proper foul management sounds like a real possibility. Most guys here are in there 40,50,60,70's and shortening a game when a team and kid are dominating is a real possibility.

Coach it wouldnt be hard to get film of your game and post it here. It would be a real eye opener for everyone if you could.

I wouldn't even attempt to argue this point with you, especially on a Friday night when every HS in the greater Chicago area is playing. I am sure that assignment guys everywhere have no choice but to put guys on games that they cant handle and hope for the best. That said, I don't really care about an officials motivation or lack thereof, it still takes a certain amount of guts to put on the uniform and go out there and put up with the abuse. That is more than can be said for the people who can only officiate from the stands. Much like anything else, people are always willing to complain. However, very few are willing to take any action. If the people complaining think the officiating is that bad, then they should get themselves a whistle, buy a rule book, attend a clinic, and go out there and try to do a better job.

Sorry Honey, I Can't Bring You To The Hospital Tonight To Deliver Our Baby ...
 

We've got a few nights, not just Fridays, when our assignment commissioner is begging us to unblock our Arbiter schedules.

Please, do not equate age with inability, poor ability, poor judgement. I've talked with several assignors and many coaches who would rather have the experienced judgement of a veteran, and the familiarity of knowing what they're going to get, than the young, talented, up-and-coming official who lacks the seasoning that only time and experience can bring.

Focus
 

The coach mentioned his player is constantly hand checked, bumped, and pushed. I can only see one of those three as being incidental contact. A recent POI on hand checking whether the hot stove touch or constant hand on is illegal contact. Forget about how great the coach feels his player is. I've been taught to referee the defense. If the defense does nothing wrong and there's contact and its not incidental then there should be a foul on the offense. Any other contact other then incidental by the defense would be a foul on the defense. If the coach feels his concerns are justified then as mentioned send a tape to the assigner. During the game you make have to work the referees in a convesational not confrontational way to get them to look at what you see going on out on the court. Something like "its a lot of hands and contact out there ." Or maybe "can u watch number 23 he has his hands on him a lot." Getting irrate leading to a tech serves no purpose. From a former Coach.Present official.

A coach telling me there's "a lot of hands and contact out there" is going to be ignored, straight away. There's no question in the statement and by this point in my career I've decided how much contact is acceptable - no coach is going to change that, especially on a single, given night.

Especially when his kids do the same thing at the other end and he's not all that concerned about it then...

That's not universally accepted (in fact, it might be a minority opinion). It also needs to be initiated by the defense -- so if the offense drives into the defense and the hand goes on, it is probably not a foul on the offense.

Exactly. Calling the "hot stove" a foul every time would quickly get you a steady diet of no games in my world.

The fact that he can play through the contact in no way means that his RSBQ was unaffected. You can be bumped and moved off your path, but be strong enough to continue to the basket. From my reading of the POEs this year, I think a foul is to be called on that kind of play.

My personal opinion is that the Rules Committee is trying to get us away from the "let them play through it" mentality.

I think this is particularly true wrt handchecking, primarily because (again, "I think") it's more difficult to determine if RSBQ is affected with a good handcheck.

Do I equate inability with age 100% no. Do I know that some Vets who have been doing it 10,,15,20 years are better than a newer younger guy. Oh yeah. I do wonder if we really helped young guys improve their game and got them here they would quickly catch up with an older guy who really struggles getting up and down the floor and a solid physical big time Varsity game and would over all help the perception and talent on the floor. Here I think we dont do enough to help everyone get better and we get comfortable putting up with whomever is on the floor calling the game.

I just heard in Vegas they have HS crews of 7-10 who work games and help eachother get better. That sounds like am amazing idea to help build relationships and work as a crew to get better.

And I wonder how many vets, unlike you guys here who obviously want to share and help others get better, do not help the new and younger get better as their game and career wind down.

All RSBQ is, is a interpretation to help us determine whether and advantage has been gained or not. And incidental contact did not go away in the rulebook with this or other POEs. And incidental contact is still apart of the rules which include that contact must create an advantage for the person causing the contact or a disadvantage to the person being contacted.

Peace