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

Preview, weekend Oct. 18/19

It was a very busy week at work and on Wednesday I had an exam, so I haven’t spent much time thinking about basketball the past couple of days, with the exception of one game which I watched Wednesday night after my exam. I tried to talk to our referee instructor and assignor this week to get some feedback on our performances in first three games. As he can download all the games it was even possible to send him a list of scenes I’d like to talk about. Unfortunately, he has a full-time job in addition to being a referee instructor which made it impossible for him to answer my question, yet.

Now, back to the future, that is the two upcoming games. I got one game in 1st division today and one in 2nd division tomorrow. The game today is between two teams who have not played in the playoffs the last three or four years. So usually you wouldn’t expect a very good game. But both team got off to pretty good starts into the season, and hope to extend their respective streaks. They play quite different styles of basketball. The home team will probably play a run-and-gun game, since they are a bit undersized in the paint without their starting center who will miss the game due to injury. They have the best power forward in the league on their roster, though. Their second most important player is their point guard, who is lightning quick but a bit undersized and will have problems containing his opponent who is far more athletic and the top scorer of the away team. The last and probably most interesting player from a referee’s point of view is the away team’s center. He is a good scorer and top rebounder and he is tough as nails. That means that there is always something going on around him. I wouldn’t say he is a dirty player but it hurts a bit playing against him, I guess. So, this guy will probably dominate the paint without an equally strong opponent on his position, but, and this will be interesting, he is a poor free throw shooter, which means that the home team will probably just send him to the charity stripe a lot!

My goals for today are basically the same as for the last couple of games. But there are some things I didn’t like much about last weekend. First, I was not very well prepared. My game preview were rather short, I didn’t work with the FIBA instructional DVDs, and I didn’t have much time before the games for myself, because everywhere I went I went with either another referee or with a friend of mine. This will be different today as I am already on the way. I will arrive 6 hours before the game and therefore have plenty of time to relax and get ready for the game. The other point I didn’t like much was our call selection and the lack of consistency, especially in my 3rd game, last Sunday. I wrote about this situation where we had the same kind of charge/flop situation on both ends of the court and one time I called a charge and the other time nothing (while probably both of them were floppings by the defensive players). Oh, and then there is one last thing which didn’t affect my performance but confused my partners. Last weekend, I didn’t write my pre-game notes in a notebook, but used my laptop instead. For me this was more convenient and saved time, but it didn’t go all too well with my partners, even though nobody said anything until I asked them how it felt for them. So, today, I will write everything in my notebook and use this instead of the computer. Today I got time for this :).

So much about the game today, tomorrow is a different story. First of all, I have never befire met the other two referees. Second, even though rules, interpretations and points of emphasis are exactly the same in both leagues, the style of officiating is totally different. In 1st division we have a way more business like attitude towards our games, this means friendly and open, yet firm and with a no-nonsense mindset. In 2nd division on the other hand, many referees (especially those who have been there longer) are more of the buddy type who will always try to explain everything he does, and, if possible, avoid conflicts at all cost. The main reasons for this are that gyms are smaller, referees do not travel as far (to save the league some money), and thus see the same teams more often than we do in 1st division. There are also less coachings, so referees do not get much objective feedback, but try to avoid anything that causes a team to report their names to the assignor using video material that supports their subjective criticism. Because of all this I asked my partners for tomorrow’s game to meet two hours before the game which will give us time to get to know each other, and discuss what we are going to do on the court in even greater detail than in other game.

posted by BBallRef @ 10/18/2008 03:43:00 PM