We clearly will not have any "Goal Tending" Violations in this league!
It's all a matter of perspective......good or bad Referee calls, I'm talking about......
If the foul or Violation is called on your opponent you think it's a good call! And your opponent thought it was a bad call! Perspective.
Often times I'll hear a Coach in a High School Game, after I make a call on the opponent, shout, "Good Call!!" To which I reply, "Aren't they ALL 'Good Calls,' Coach?" Most Coaches will nod yes, or even chuckle & say, "Yes they are." One Coach said, "Yes, but some calls are more good than others!" Another said, "I wish you'd make more "Good Calls" on them and fewer on us!"
I think we've seen some different perspectives among our Brethren with some calls we've seen made in just the first 2 nites of play. It happens.
After he was called for a foul he clearly did not agree with, one of our Brethren Thursday nite looked at me and asked incredulously, "Are you serious??!!" "Brother if I blew the whistle, then YES, I am serious!!" I told my wife, Kim, about it when I dragged myself home about 10:30 after 4 hours of Refereeing. She laughed and said, "Oh they'll figure out you're serious about your calls soon enough, won't they??!!"
OK, I know you folks are reading my E-mails, but I'm starting to wonder if you are paying attention!! (Except for Bishop Strebeck, who apparently DID read last week's message about Elder's Quorum President Ladd Smith getting us off to a late start with his lengthy opening prayer and who I understand has now banned Ladd from saying Opening Prayers in Priesthood Executive Committee meeting for his lengthy prayer habit.)
TWO ISSUES:
- I have REPEATEDLY STATED our games are being played on a ROTATION NITE BASIS. Tuesday one week, Wednesday the next, followed by Thursday and back to Tuesday. Some have thought all games were Wednesday's. Other's thought they were all being played on Thursdays. Please notice on the schedule I send out at the top of each game nite in BOLD RED LETTERS it shows the DAY and Date of the game each week. (I did goof showing the first game start time on a couple nites as 6:20 PM. The first game of the nite is ALWAYS at 6:00 PM start.
- Last week I asked everyone to bring a DARK colored shirt AND a WHITE shirt to the games. That way we can have one White shirted & one Dark shirted team on the floor which makes the Refereeing a lot easier. As if Refereeing is ever easy.
If you'll remember to do that then one team does not have to be the 2nd or 3rd team to wear the white pullover jersey's I brought just in case both teams showed up in dark colors. Those jerseys do become a bit odiferous the 2nd wearing. I also won't have to listen to you complain about how bad the fellows stunk who wore the jersey before you!!
So it's up to you to decide if you want to bring 2 shirts or risk being the 2nd guy into a pullover jersey!!
I saw a number of "No Look Passes" Thursday nite! Unfortunately, most of the "No Looking" was by the fellows the pass was intended for, so the ball just flew out of bounds. The most awesome near "No Look Pass" was Jared Wright who drove toward the lane and wrapped the ball completely around his back from right to left THEN FORWARD to a teammate standing under the basket in perfect easy lay up position. Unfortunately, that team mate was looking up at the rim waiting for one of Jared's usual "Bricks" to come bouncing off to rebound and did not see the oh so pretty pass coming. (For the uninitiated B-Ball Fan, a "No Look Pass" is where the ball handler fires off a pass to a team mate that he is NOT looking at. It decoys the direction of the pass from the Defensive players.)
Brad Martineau DID manage a superb "No LOOK/ Behind the Back Pass" to a teammate for a layup. Well done Brad.
Have you ever seen Dallas Neville on the Front end of a Fast Break? No one else had either **......but he almost pulled it off Thursday nite. Arriving at half court on the Defensive end about the time a teammate pulled down a rebound, the teammate turned, saw Dallas and fired off a long pass. Dallas caught the ball, turned and near sprinted 2 steps until he realized what he was trying to do. Then pulled up and waited for the rest of his teammates to catch up. Wise play! **(I'm sorry, but I laugh every time I re-read this section!!
Speaking of Dallas, if you are on the Defense and in the Key when Dallas makes his "Shaq Power Drive" move to the basket, just get out of the way! There's a 30% chance he'll make it and a 100% YOU won't - remain standing, that is. The odds are NOT in your favor to try and "Take the Charge." Take the odds and get out of his way.
And THAT reminds me. I know you see the boys in the NBA "Flop" all the time in an attempt to "Draw the Foul." Most referees can see when you flopped. When you're lying down on the floor it's making you AND the referee look bad, It can get worse, too......I had a fellow in a Mesa Parks & Rec League "flopping" all nite, I warned him to stop but he couldn't resist and flopped one more time, so I called a Foul on him for Blocking. He jumped off the floor, raced to me and yelled, "How can that be blocking when I never touched him!!" I asked, "If you never touched him, why did you grunt so loud and how did you end up on your backside on the floor? Did you deliberately fall back trying to draw the foul?" The fool said, "YES I DID. You can't call Blocking on that!!" "You're right," I Said. That information changes everything. Intentionally Flopping is a Technical Foul, so your opponent gets to shoot Free Throws AND get the Ball at Mid Court AND you're gonna have to sit the bench for 2 minutes!" He did not like that at all. So Brethren, please don't flop in our league......
It's also not a good idea when you're not happy with the Referee to say, "Are you in their Ward? It sure looks like it, the way you're calling fouls." That gets you a "T" and a 2 minute trip to the bench and conversion from being a player to being a spectator. It also might mean you're not in the game to make the winning shot.
NO ONE LIKES THE REFEREE CALLS. GET USE TO IT! Sometimes the Referee isn't real happy with the call he just made, either, just like you're not happy when you fire up an "Air Ball." Mistakes happen.
Have you ever watched a B-ball game and hear the announcer's say that was a perfectly called game? Nope. Not gonna happen. Too much happens too fast for 2 or even 3 Referees to see it all. Sometimes a big fellow, and we have a few of those in our Stakes, steps between the play action and the Referee and the Referee's vision is completely blocked out just the instant a likely foul occurs and he misses the call. Too bad. Even the best Referees in the world- NBA, NFL, MLB, and NCAA often blow a call. Critical calls, too! So what are you expecting from one of our Stake Brethren who's never Refereed before? Just keep playing.
Sometimes a Referee can get caught up watching a well played game, so well played he gets distracted by the quality of the game itself and he sees something happen and thinks to himself, "Some one should have called that! Oh no, I'm THAT SOMEONE!!" The call is missed and it's too late to make it. I will confess to having been distracted a number of times in the first two nites of play and may have missed some calls. No, not by the quality of play. Don't flatter yourselves that easily. I've been trying to help the Scoreboard running. Answering multiple questions, keeping kids off the court & dealt with a myriad of other distractions while trying to referee and missed some plays. I turned my back to the game from answering Scorekeeper questions in time to see Chris Jones go head first to the floor. He looked up & asked, "What was that?" the answer- "I missed that call. My bad. Sorry!"
Now, if we could just get each Ward to provide TWO Referees for each games, as I've asked of you, it would help out a whole lot!!
We had a bit of a tiff at the end of one close game and may have had 6 players on the floor at the same time for one team. I was Refereeing with a young'in, I think from Desert Mountain Ward, who bless his heart had never Refereed a game in his life before Thursday nite. The players on the bench of the team with 5 players on floor called a Time Out just before his team mate attempted AND THEN MADE what would have been a game winning 3 point shot- had the Time Out not been called first. The Time Out canceled out the otherwise Game Winning Shot! The team with 5 players was naturally a bit miffed and expressed their dissatisfaction with the quality of the officiating.
I asked them how many Referees were they suppose to provide for the game. An astute fellow correctly answered "One." I asked how many Referees they had provided. Since it's not hard to count to ZERO and the Black & White Referee shirts are easily identified, we had another correct answer of "NONE." "The don't make a fuss about the Refereeing," I said.
I meant it then & I mean it every nite! Each team is to provide ONE Referee and ONE Scorekeeper. If you're lucky enough to have someone not from your team graciously agree to referee in your place, be glad for it and don't make a fuss!
I've noticed the fellows that complain the most about Referee calls never seem to put on the Black & White shirt and blow the whistle themselves. It's considerably easier to "Ref" from the sidelines than it is to BE the Ref......
And since I'm hoping many of you WILL agree to do more Refereeing, let's review some common play situations and Referee philosophy-
Over the Back- It is NOT a foul for the fellow in back to be taller or jump higher then the guy in front. If the guy in back jumps higher and gets the rebound without pushing the player in front, that's OK.
Kicking the Ball- Must be INTENTIONAL with contact occurring on ANY part of the leg. If a pass accidentally hits another player's foot it is not a violation. Keep playing.
Drive to the Basket- Many Offensive players like to jump into the Defender or twist their hips into the defender to push them away OR try to draw an undeserved foul from a Referee that's not paying proper attention when they drive to the basket. You are not allowed to do that. I don't care if Kobe does get that call every nite. No one is paying a gazillion dollars to watch you play!! YOU can be called for a Player Control Foul if the Referee thinks your action created a disadvantage for the Defense. If, after you initiate the contact, the Defender bumps you- there's a good chance his "bump" is a natural physical reaction to your bumping him first. Unless the return bump is rather hard, I'm gonna ignore it. I figure if you pick the fight in the first place don't expect me to bail you out if you get stuck & miss the shot. Spend some more time practicing your fade away shot! And if you decide to ram a guy a lot bigger then you and you end up on the floor, get up real quick 'cause the Fast Break is going the other way and the guy you're suppose to be guarding is probably gonna make his layup at the other end of the court and I'm not waiting around to hear you complain.
Driving BETWEEN Player, End & Sidelines- I know no one is gonna believe this, so I may as well try to remember to bring my rule book Tuesday nite so you can read it for your own selves......
You see a lot of fellows try to drive the middle of the lane BETWEEN Defensive Players. They'll bounce off a couple Defenders like a pinball between flappers before heaving some half-baked shot off at the basket, falling down and crying, "Where's the Foul!?!?" The only thing "foul" was your shot attempt!!
If there is 3' or less between 2 Defenders or a Defender and an End or Sideline AND a Offensive players tries to drive between the Defenders or End / Sideline, THE RESPONSIBILITY FOR CONTACT IS ON THE OFFENSIVE PLAYER. Now, of course that does not mean the Defenders can knock the Offender around but if you think you want to drive into that tight space and you get bumped, it's your own fault. Take the bump or go around.
"I was pushed!!"- Yes you were. It was your own overly aggressive teammate pushing you from behind, he just won't admit it. He thought it was an Off Tackle Tailback Drive & he was just trying to push the whole pile over the goal line. He's not sorry about it either......
OR, maybe you were pushed. Ask yourself where you were AND where did the ball go? Did it rebound AWAY from you such that you did not have a likely chance of getting the rebound? Then unless the push was rather hard, or a cheap jab in the back, the Referee will ignore it. BUT he'll also be watching to see if the same player does the same push on another rebound you can get to. If you miss that rebound because of the push you'll probably get a foul call. If you get the rebound and the push did not effect the play, the push will be ignored. It's a matter of perspective, again......
What was That, Ref?- (Usually uttered after some players comes blasting thru the lane, shovels up an off balance shot & absurd shot, loses his balance & crashes to the floor). I'm not sure what that was. Clumsy, maybe? I'm just trying not to laugh......
I know the Rules, you idiot!- My, at the time soon to be Son in Law- Jay Rosenhan, (along with my daughter, Emily & my wife, Kim) attended a High School Game that I was Refereeing. A female fan sitting near them complained rather loudly (Most complainers ARE loud......) "That Ref doesn't know the rules!!" When I called a Charging/ Player Control Foul on a player from the fan's team when the player crashed into a defender standing under the basket. Jay asked, "What do you mean?" The fan replied,"The Defensive player was standing under the basket. I watch the NBA every Sunday and I know the rules!! It's not charging when that happens!!" Jay informed the fan that the rules for High School and the NBA are different. "No they're not! You're an idiot!!" She shouted. Jay wisely decided it was not worth the aggravation of arguing with a fool. The rules for the NBA and High School ARE DIFFERENT. If your personal rules knowledge is based on the NBA, we are playing High School Rules, don't hesitate to ask me about it if you have a question about a rule. I'm always happy to explain.
I'm attaching my Quiz Answers to this missive. You might want to take a look for fun and test your rules expertise!!
An Experiment- We only play about 36 minutes, so waiting for a whistle to blow for substitutions can be a drag. I was experimenting Thursday nite & will again TUESDAY nite with "International Rules" or Soccer/ Hockey type substitutions. A Sub can enter at any time WITH OUT waiting for the Referee to bring them into the court with these provisions.
- Yell "SUB" REAL LOUD so everyone knows someone new is coming into the game.
- You cannot go run to your basket, park underneither it and have a teammate heave a long pass for a "Cherry Picking" easy basket.
Yes, I know this may create some confusion about what person a player may be guarding, but since I haven't seen much "guarding" going on so far, I hope it's not a big problem & helps get more people into the games for more playing time.
This is NOT the NBA. YOU are not in the NBA- Is a note I tape to the Scorer's Table each nite (Click here to see the whole note). Actually in some ways you are BETTER than the NBA. The NBA plays 48 minutes of "Regulation Clock" where the clock stops every time the Referee blows a whistle. a 48 minute game takes 1 1/2 hours of Game Action Time to play and the NBA averages around 100 points per game. That works out on my trusty HP12 real Estate calculator to be 1.11 points per minute scored.
We played approximately 36 minutes of running clock IF prior games end on time, and IF the players for the next game manage to wander to the Scorer's Table end of the court in a reasonable amount of time to participate in the Opening Prayer and IF there's no long winded High Priests or Elder's Quorum Presidency members offer the Opening Prayers......
We've had SEVERAL teams score OVER 50 points. One game was 58-57!!
That's an incredible 1.61 points per minutes and FAR more fast paced than the NBA manages!!
Yes, the NBA plays a longer court, but they're younger, bigger, faster and get up & down their court in about the same time it takes your Brethren to get up & down our smaller Stake center Courts and they have a higher shooting percentage.
As crazy as it sounds. As awful as some of the shot you are attempting are. As many shots as you throw up (with a lower shooting average than the NBA you have to take MORE shots per minute to score). As unbelievable as are some things you are trying to do......you are out performing the NBA!!! Good Job!!
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