Hey Coaches,

Time to celebrate!
After 12 years of coaching Park&Rec, Travel, High School CYO and now AAU I have rec'd my first technical.
Now I'm a pretty mellow guy. I'm not one of those angry coaches storming up and down the sidelines trying to sway or intimidate refs. I've questioned calls and non-calls but never argued them, I've always respected referees. But this one really threw me for a loop.

The game just started...maybe 1 to 2 minutes into the game. The other team had a steal and was attacking the hoop. The opposing player clearly took too many steps going for the layup. The ref missed the travel and called a foul, after the travel, on one of my players and all I did was point at the player, spin my arms around (international signal for travel) and yell travel from across a very loud court.
The ref who made the foul call immediately T'd me up. I never argued with him, never used profanity.

After the game I asked him why he T'd me up. He said because I showed him up in front of the crowd. He said by using hand motions I told the entire audience(large, packed AAU gym with 3 other games going on) that he missed a call.
He claims I disrespected him. I asked how should I have questioned the non-call. He said call me over and talk about it. I then asked why didn't you warn me? He said that would not have worked, he said by giving you a technical early in the game it changed my behavior for the rest of the game. He said with a smile, "And I did change your behavior didn't I?"

I just thought it was funny.....my assistant coach and all the parents were just baffled. My AAU U-13 girls all kinda made fun of it after the game. We ended up winning so it really didn't impact the game.

Any other "technical" stories out there that other coaches would like to share?

Out,

Coach A

Any other "technical" stories out there that other coaches would like to share?

Which one? :-)

My first T as a Varsity coach..... questioned a ref about his BAD CALL ... from across the floor... he started walking up the floor, whistled me for a T and as he walked by he asked " How's that call?" My reply was -- as I was laughing -- Thats a pretty good one Justin. He smiled.... he and I never had another problem in 17 years.

Thats when I learned the value of humor, especially with the Refs.

Hopefully, this one gives you a good laugh.

This is my first and only technical so far. There is 90 seconds left – up by 6 points. The opposing team just scored. They were pressing us, and the kids were a little flustered. I notice we’re having trouble getting the ball inbounds. So immediately I want to call a timeout to set up the press break. After yelling, waving my arms, and jumping up and down for about 3 seconds, I decided to run across the court to the nearest official signaling a timeout. After I’m about ¾ of the way to the opposite sideline, I get the time out. Unfortunately, I also got a technical with it.

To be completely honest, I didn’t even know the rule. Dumb on my part. To get in the referee’s vision, I’d seen my varsity coach calmly walk out on the court (not RUN) and signal a timeout many of times. So, I thought I would do the same, but with a little more spice.

The funny thing is that they didn’t call the technical until about 2 minutes later after an opposing fan, who was an older gentlemen, had been screaming that it should have been a technical. After I saw the referee gave me the technical, I went to the referee to ask him what the technical was for, and he told me to “Shut up and sit down. He had enough from me. One more word and he was kicking me out of the place.” I hadn’t said one word to them the entire game. He was so flustered, because the fans were standing up and screaming at them that I guess he felt the need to take it out on me. He came up to me after the game and said that he was reporting me to the AD and all of this other stuff. The varsity head coach was sitting right behind me the whole game, so I wasn’t too concerned. The varsity coach said besides running out on the court, my sideline behavior was great.

After the game, I also had to restrain the older gentlemen from the opposing team from fighting the same official who went a little nutty on me. The devil inside of me was thinking, “Gosh. I should just let this guy go.” Well, after about 5 minutes of telling the older gentlemen that it is not worth it. It is just a basketball game. He finally left.

By the way, we still held on for the win. I felt horrible, but the parents were actually teasing me which made me feel a little better.

Guess what happens two weeks later. We play the same team. On the scorer’s sheet, we messed up the jersey numbers on our team which is an automatic technical. Well, guess who is at the scorer’s table? The older gentlemen who wanted to fight the referee. Right before the kids go out to play, he calls me over and says, “Hey. These two numbers are off. Don’t worry about it. I’ll change it for you.” I guess it was his way of saying thanks for not letting me do anything stupid at the game before.

I guess that's why you always do the right thing.

By the way, they beat us on a buzzer beater. We’re up two and shooting two free throws with 4 seconds left. We miss both free throws. They tip the ball out and dribble the length of the floor and nail a 3 to win.

Great stories and some great memories coaches!!!

Have a fun and safe Memorial Day Weekend!!!

Great stories.... I bet you learned a lot from those two games..... I learned to have a 3 point defense after the rule came in.... every game we coach we learn.

I would have loved to see you run on the floor...... I have passed the center line many times. One game as a sophomore coach.... I was down by the other team several times - after the game our head coach introduced me to their AD..... he said... " OH, ALL THIS TIME I THOUGHT YOU WERE ON OUR STAFFF. "
LOL

Gentlemen: I don't really want to get technical here however, until you have been T'd up in China, you have never had a real T. We were playing in a tournament in Shanghai and it was a very close game. Now first of all i must say I am no angel as a coach and I really couldn't count the number of T's Ive had. But this one took the cake. A very close game and we had the ball behind 1 with a few seconds to go. After a time out, we put the ball in play and scored and were celebrating what we assumed was a victory. But the table official came running out on the floor cigarette dangling out of his lips, waving off the basket. Apparently, the 30 second clock had run out before we took the shot. First of all, there was no visible clock the time was governed by an official with a stop watch at the table, so they said. I went to the table and said, "you have not used a shot clock the entire tournament why now, because we are playing the local team."? The official had no idea what I said because he did not speak any English but the T was swift and final.... Coach Mac

If I can share another China story, I was looking at some kids that play on University teams here during a C.U.B.A tournament. This is the Chinese University Basketball Association. Watching basketball here is like watching it in a bar before the smoking ban. Every official on the table was smoking as were the coaches on both benches. The referee makes a call and the Chongqing University coach complains. Suddenly, this white haired man comes right out on the floor approaches the official and says something to him. The official changed the call. This happened twice in the game. I was shocked I had never seen that before. I found out later, that the man that forced the official to change the call was the Athletic Director of Chongqing University and the head official for Chongqing City apparently, the only team that was allowed to advance onto the National C.U.B.A. tournament was Chongqing U. so, if the other team won, they would lose face. Mac

The HOMERS of all HOMERS huh Mac! Those stories sound like the Olmpics back when Doug Collins and the US team was playing for the Gold and they gave the Russians 3 tries to beat them. To this day they haven't picked up those medals for the Silver...... When I asked him about it he really didn't have a lot to say other than it was the principal of the thing... a class guy.