Game Log 2/1/2006: Nobody got hurt.

To nobody's surprise, White won by 50. It was 20-2 at one point.

Our job: Be sure nobody gets hurt. Call the obvious. Get home.

It was a good game...good communication, good crew integrity. The third quarter had a chance of getting ugly--I felt like there were may have been some fouls on shooters we missed (and we includes me)--but it turned out all right in the end. One conversation with the Blue coach about hand-checking by White. What's weird about that is that, at that point in the game (late first or early second quarter), just by luck of the draw, I had almost never been following Blue up the floor--so they weren't my handchecks to call. I guess one of my partners overheard, though, since he got a hand-check on the very next play.

One brain freeze--3-man related. Blue had the ball out of bounds with 7 seconds on the shot clock. I'm C opposite the table. I make good eye contact with my partner. I point at my eye: the signal for "look up." He sees the shot clock, but doesn't point at me. In 2-man, the shot clock violation goes to trail. I therefore thought he had the call. But I had the call...in 3-man, the shot clock violation goes to the sideline official opposite the table. So the buzzer went for about two seconds, Blue shot the ball and made it, and then my partner weekly blew his whistle and got the shot clock violation. Damn. That one was mine. But it's not an error I'll make again.

Speaking of shot clocks, I reset one. Blue launched a three in the second quarter with three on the shot clock. As trail, I saw the ball graze the rim--I swear I did. Black got the rebound and was stuck on the baseline. The shot clock didn't reset. So I blew the play dead and said "The ball nicked the rim. Reset the shot clock." The coach said "No! That was way short!" I confidently replied: "It got the rim, coach." After the game, I asked my partner who was C about the play. He said it was an airball. I guess I won't do that in the future unless I'm 100% sure...trust the table to see that and only overturn egregious errors, which this wasn't.

We were evaluated tonight, and my evaluator was way less hard on me than I would have been. He didn't even mention the shot clock mistake. He wants me to take a step or two out onto the floor as C, and he caught me bailing in mid-rotation a couple of times (which I should do on a shot, but not when the ball suddenly reverses, I have now learned). I also need to close on calls more...I'm taking a step or two in on distant calls as C and T, and he wants me to take 4 or 5 steps. All of these are perfectly legitimate criticisms. Regardless of what my score winds up being, this evaluator can evaluate me anytime. I learned from him, and will be better next time.

THINGS I DID WELL: Game management, handled rotations well as C and T
THINGS TO WORK ON: Some lingering 3-man errors, get on floor as C, close on calls, don't bail on rotations when there's a reversal of the ball
NEXT UP: An awfully good game on Friday night. A state-ranked team with one loss on the year against a team that's well over .500. I expect the state-ranked team to win, but I don't expect a blowout, and the basketball will be better than anything I've seen all year. I'm looking forward to this one big-time...it's better than a first-year varsity official usually gets.