Playoff Prep
 

Playoffs start in my neck of the woods on Feb 14th..

Officials want to hold a Rules Study Session this week in Prep for Playoffs

Suggestions on what your top 5 areas of rules you would cover....

Thanks!

the fumble and high dribble. Principle of verticality. hmm. in the playoffs with the higher level of play I've found you don't need to worry so much about hand checks and some other minor fouls if not impacting play but that can vary.

Cowbells. Yeah go over them. Always watch for the cowbells.

Not changing anything from the regular season.

If your area has cleaned up the hand checking, don't start ignoring it now.

Just my opinion.
 

I would start with definitions and then read the casebook.

Otherwise I think special playoff prep is too late. You need to have been studying those things all along or going over plays and situation during the season. Reading this site or others like it also helps. Rules knowledge comes with many games, situations and watching and hearing situations happen. Because if you do not know something now, when the real bullets are flying you have to "know" rather than "remember."

Peace

What would be of more value to your pool of officials now, reviewing a number of rules or reviewing positioning mechanics and coverages?

I've never heard about playoff prep before.
The only thing is I'd want to see is the refs on the same page. I've seen a few games when they aren't or maybe you'll have one game when the refs are calling it really tight, and then the next is loose. Sometimes with the playoffs you are working with new people and the chemistry isn't there. I do like working with new refs though because sometimes things just click and it goes really well.

I kind of agree. If anything, have an extra-detailed pre-game. And this doesn't have to all be in the dressing room. Try to go to the game site together, maybe even have lunch or dinner together earlier in the day. Shoot the breeze, get to know each other, talk about basketball. It works wonders for being on the same page come tip-off time.

Get a hold of somebody's game video and review it.

Our state assn. sent out an email to all local assns. a week ago emphasizing...of all things...uniform and equipment rules. Specifically, undershirts, leg sleeves, and tights. Their concern is that schools will be going into state tournament play with illegal items.

Regional Girls play is underway. Boys begin next Thursday. Nice to know they're focused on the important things. :(

This part made me laugh. Other than Saturdays, most of the guys I know go directly from their jobs to their games. If it wasn't for that pesky need to actually make a living, I would agree there could be some merit in this approach.

Instead of going over rules, I'd be going over some game film (as suggested by BNR) or getting your hands on as many clips of plays as possible and breaking down the plays (positioning...then if the call is CC/IC/NCC/NCI...plus anything other unusual situations).

For regional playoffs in my area, officials assigned to the tournaments are assigned about a month in advance, but several on the crew are coming from hundreds of miles away, if not flying in. There is usually a designated "crew chief" responsible for the assigning. Game assignments are given the night before the first day at a local watering hole. Sometimes we get to know some of our partners a little better than we'd really like to.

I say good for your state assn. 1. It heads off problems later in the tournament if it gets dealt with in the first playoff games and 2. I've always thought that if the an official can't get the non-judgment items right in which all he has to do is look at the color of an item, I'm not going to have much confidence in his other rules knowledge or his attention to detail.

Little Corners Of States ...
 

Some local boards may interpret equipment rules (undershirt, headbands, wristbands, sleeves) differently, so as teams start dealing with new officials, and new interpretations, it's good to get everybody together on the same page.