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

Recap, weekend, April 8 and 9, 2006

Saturday: 2nd division men ... 3rd place vs. 5th. Two good teams, great coaches, even though sometimes really pushing, and two referees who had never worked a game together before this day.

In the end the home team won, because the visiting team broke down in the last quarter (23-8). I think we had an ok game. My partner and I could have had better communication between the two of us, but fortunately it didn't lead to any weired situations.

Nonetheless I had the feeling, that there was a small gap in philosophy between us. I arrived, as always, in a dark suite, white shirt, with a tie. He met me wearing jeans, t-shirt, and a jacket. Now add to this that he is 42, and works as a quality assurance manager, while I am 27 (at least for one more week) and a graduate student at university. He's been in the league for a while, I have refereed there for a bit more than a year. Let's say he is old school and refereeing is just his favorite pastime, while I see refereeing more as a profession and this is probably what got me to 1st divison in such a short time. Where does this show on the court? Often more experienced referees are able to handle conflict better than less experienced colleagues, but at the point where we are now, the tradition of talking and explaining has led to endless discussions during games. Referees hesitate to tell players or coaches when they have heard enough. Some of them try to avoid conflict by balancing the number of foul calls, expalining everything they call, thinking too much about what a coach or the players might say. The reason for this probably is, that for a couple of years, evaluations by the teams, or team officials decided who got promoted and who didn't get any games at all. Fortunately, these days are over. Nowadays we have a lot of evaluations from former referees and our assignors that determine the ranking of all referees. If you compare games in 2nd division and 1st division, players on the highest level don't try to talk to the referees that much. They focus on playing the game ... and referees do not invite them to discuss their latest call. Besides the oldschool vs. newschool thing, the regional factor also weighs in on philosophy. Depending on where one grew up as a referee, you may turn out either as "the law enforcer - cop type", "talkative guy - negotiator type", "let's see what they want - laisser faire style", and so on :-))

To wrap Saturday up, the game was ok, my partner and I didn't have much trouble. I think there was a small difference between his and my call selection on reaching, grabbing - advantage, disadvantage. If anybody outside the referee scene noticed the difference he probably would have had problems explaining where they came from as they were only minor differences!

Sunday: 2nd division women - play-off game, 2nd round, first game. I don't have many women's games during the regular season, I referee mostly men. This is not because I don't like to work women's games, but because my assignors for men's and women's games (who happen to be the same person) want it that way ...

Home team wins, and the visiting coach feels the need to express his feelings, how unhappy he is with our performance. Line of the day: "We worked all year for this." As if I wasn't ... I worked 10 years to get where I am now. I know, most people think, referees don't work to get better between games. This might be true for some of us, but not for everybody. I know a lot of people who referee games, who think about it every single day, who work out in the gym to be in the best shape possible, who practice mental skills to improve concentration and decision making, and who study more tape than most coaches do to get a better understanding of the game and its intricacies. What did he actually want? His major complaint was that he about our application of the 3-second-rule ... ok, I'll review the tape, but I already paid attention to it during the game, even more than usually, because he kept reminding me to call it ;-) They lost the game 82-49, and he was complaining about the referees, and how we destroyed everything they 'v been working for.

Most interesting situation during the game. The visiting team's point guard, a Russian or Ukrainian girl, who is supposed to be the team leader but had an off night, gets her third foul early in the 4th. I call it and she yells something like "F***" in Russian across the court. My dad is Russian, too, so I understood what she said and T'd her. She is like: "What did I say?", her coach rises from the bench "What did she do?". I tell him to ask her, because I am not going to repeat it. He refuses to understand ... After the game I explained it to him, and he says something like: "Come on, everybody curses during games. It's not that she said "F*** you, so it wasn't personal!". Thanks coach, I mean, what else do I need to know!?

It was a great weekend, I met interesting people, not only during the games, but also on my trip to and from Saturday's game. The games were ok. So, everything is fine.

Next: job interview tomorrow with a consulting company, time for the suit again :-)
And I got the game on easter Sunday in 1st division. I know it is meaningless, because one team can't make it to the play-offs anymore, while the other is in last place and will play in 2nd division next year, yet it's still 1st division and I am really excited about this unforeseen opportunity.

posted by BBallRef @ 4/12/2006 01:37:00 PM