Game Log 1/14/10: Surprise! Boys' varsity!

Had a JV game scheduled tonight: two-man. Headed out there and handled it all right. Partner and I discussed things clearly, put together a few decent quarters, cleaned up the game, and headed to the locker room. We simply shook hands and readied ourselves for a surprisingly early trip home.

Problem: There were no officials in the locker room.

We called our assignor. My partner reached him. Fortunately--indeed--because he wound up heading up for a three-person game.

We needed him. It was a physical matchup--and it was probably the toughest boys' game I've ever had (not that there have been many).

Home team jumped out to a big lead and basically held on thereafter. And, in the second quarter, visiting coach became really pissed off at me. Down on his offensive end of the floor, visiting post player thrusted out his butt and displaced his opponent. He doesn't get to do that. Foul on Red. I wound up in his ear for the next possession. "Look at that in the post! Don't call it on them!" First thing I saw worth calling? A push on Red.

Coach was irate. He actually called time out just to holler. Didn't think it was a technical, but didn't really have much response either. Eventually, I just said "Coach, are you done?" He was speechless. He didn't want to say "yes," since I hadn't said "Gee, coach, you're absolutely right." He didn't want to say "no," either. So he said "Are you going to start calling that?" I just said "I'll keep calling the game as best as I can."

I did wind up warning him in the third quarter, which pretty well stopped him for the rest of the night. Red had launched a shot that hit the shot clock above the backboard (after the rim). I blew it dead and gave it to White. Correct call--as correct as it comes. Next time down the floor said "You know, that ball didn't hit the shot clock." How the hell do you respond to that--a simply false statement? I responded with "Are you done?" again, and then a warning.

One other weird play. I had a double foul on banging post guys. Shot clock was NOT reset, which it should not be. But in my mind, I got screwed up when someone shouted "Reset!" I thought..."wait, we just had a foul" and blew my whistle too soon. But I caught myself and said "Wait...no...keep the shot clock at 16." White's assistant coach--a former college official, or so I'm told--said "No! You reset it to 20!" I'm pretty sure that's the college rule, but I know damn well it isn't the high school rule. I wish I'd either been a little more assertive or not responded to the assistant coach at all. But I said "That's the college rule." When he persisted, I said "I'll look it up." Better would have been "Let's both look it up, coach, but it's the college rule."

I do think we were tending to catch the second foul instead of the first, but this game was so physical that anybody would have struggled with it. (Did I mention how glad I was that a third official showed up?) It wasn't an incredibly great game on my part, but it wasn't a crash-and-burn either. As I continue to move up, I'll take that.

THINGS I DID WELL: Kept cool with loud coaches, handled weird situations reasonably well
THINGS TO WORK ON: I was a little timid, and I think my posture was a little off.
NEXT UP: Boys freshman game on Thursday.