First Talk, Then T - A Basketball Ref's Diary

Preview for Saturday, March 4, and Sunday, March 5, 2006

I have to keep this post short, because I still need to pack my bag for this weekend's trip. This also means no spell-checking today ...

Today I already picked up my car from the Enterprise station around the corner. It will be a 6 hour drive tomorrow, and I don't like to go on such a long trip with my old and rusty car ;-) The best part of this weekend, besides the games of course, is that I get to stay at the house of my partner from tomorrow's game. He lives pretty close to the town where we will work that game and invited me to stay at his house, instead of going to a small hotel, which is very nice of him, because these hotels can be really really small and not very comfortable to say the least (it's the clubs, who chose a hotel for you, because they have to pay for it).

On to the games:

First match on Saturday: This season's surprise team (new to the league and in 4th place at 13-8) plays at home against a team, which fights to stay in the league (second to last place at 4-17). My partner is about my age, so we will build a pretty young referee team out there ... We will have to prove from the first minute that we can handle this game. I have never been to this place before, so I don't really know what to expect.
Goals:

• get control early ... then see if players adjust (play smart), and if it works ease up a bit in favor of the flow of the game
• don't do the things I saw on the video last night (or do them differently, i.e. better)
  
• team, team, team ...
  
• have fun :-)

Sunday: Two teams who stand next to each other in the standings (hometeam is 8-13, visitors 7-14). Home team depends on 2 very experienced American players, visiting team is very young and athletic. It's always interesting to work a game where "old and experienced" plays against "young and hungry". One team trys to outsmart the other, while the other team literally trys to run away with the game ... I expect a game of runs ... full-court press ... but no trouble :-) my partner in this one is one of the most experienced refs we have on that level. He has never worked a game in 1st division, but worked in this league (2nd div.) for almost 20 years! Now that's a lot of games!

The goals for this one are basically the same as for the first game, even though there is no need to be very hard from the beginning. It's always easier to ref a game in that constellation (young and old ref), because people know what to expect from the veteran, and as long as the young gun blends in it's gonna be ok, or better!

I'll come back on Monday and file my game reports. Make sure you don't miss them, you lonely reader of my blog!

Good night everybody

posted by BBallRef @ 3/03/2006 11:53:00 PM