I forgot to blow my whistle

"I saw the travel but I forgot to blow my whistle!"

Yes this is a direct quote from one of the officials following the one point loss to Muenster. The travel took place during a critical part of the game with about a minute left in the game and us down two. I was just reading Matt's blog and I completely agree with him about my disdain for people blaming games on officials but out here it is starting to get RIDICULOUS. Officials are impacting games. The game is for players, not for officials. Officials should be non existent. Not the case on Saturday.

Here is my take on officiating. I am not an official nor do I pretend to be one nor pretend to like them. An official needs to step into a game and enforce the rules although he or she has the ability to interpret the rules. I believe that an official should become involved in a game (ie: blow his or her whistle) when one team gains and illegal advantage over the other team that directly affects the game. They also have the job of keeping a game safe. I know people make mistakes and miss things but if you are in the right position and looking where you are supposed to look I can accept that. If you can't get down the floor to see if a foul occurs on a fast break or are too undisciplined to cover your area and constantly watch the ball now this I get upset about. I guess I can't blame specific individuals for this but rather the governing body that selects those capable of performing this duty. I am not a plumber because I sit on a toilet.

Ok my rant is over now to move on the game analysis.

Probably from my rant you figured out that we lost the game. The atmosphere was great with 600+ people there (600 is alot of one of our games). The fans were packed with people surrounding the floor a couple rows deep standing. It felt like a real basketball game. Muenster tried to get all NBA on us by shutting off the lights for their introductions complete with smoke machines, spot lights, and strobe lights. All I can say is I am glad I did not have eplilepsy or I could have had a breakdown.

The stage was set, everyone was hype. It made for a great game. We started out the game a little slow falling to a double digit deficit early. We managed to fight out way back to make it within five by the end of the first half. Just like the first game this one was an all out war. If I get chucked on one more time heads are going to roll. Chucked means you are trying to run through the lane and someone hits you with a forearm to your chest knocking you off balance.

We went into halftime, talk about some things to do differently and came out firing in the second half. The game stayed close the rest of the way out. The fourth quarter was an interesting story to say the least. It was a battle as we went back and forth except a battle where one team had a shield and one team no armor. The foul count in the last quarter was at least 10 to 2 . For a team that attacks the hoop as much as we do how can we only have 2 fouls for us. Either way the game was close and down the stretch we made a few mistakes that probably ended up costing us the game. We had a 6 point lead with 3-4 minutes left and if one of our late threes would have fell we could have twisted the dagger but they came back. I fouled out with about a minute and a half left in the game on a ticky tack reach on the post. For me this was really disappointing because I could no longer have an impact on the game. We ended up making a three at the buzzer to be within 1 but it didn't matter it was all done.

There is much more I could talk about on the officiating but for now I will let it rest. I realize its a hard job but sometimes its just like come on, quit being a homer.

Coaching

I can't believe I forgot to talk about the coaching I have been doing over here. Pretty much the entire time I have been here I have been coaching two different teams. One team is made up of 12-13 year olds and the other team is the second men's team with guys from 20-30 years old. I have practice almost every day with one of the teams for and hour and a half to two hours. The teams are a lot of fun to coach but the language barrier especially with my younger kids can be frustrating at times. With them though its simply fundamentals day in and day out. I will talk about the youth programs at a later time as it is a blog post in itself.

U14 Team

Honestly my U14 team is not very good. I don't have a lot of natural talent. Most of the kids come out to just have fun and hang out with their friends and that is just fine with me. It also means we are not going to win too many games. I do have a few kids who are really trying to get better and take what I say to heart which I appreciate.

I think they ended up losing by 30 or so. I could talk about officiating in this game too but lets just save that. My assistant coach got a technical during the game which was pretty funny and wrecked a perfectly good marker while he was at it.


Men's Team

My men's team played the worst team in our leage and won by 30 or so. With only one true post at the game our style of play was a little more uptempo. This team is really good when they play fast because many of the teams they are playing against are older and slow. I really like working with this team because I can put in things that they are able to go out and do where with my little kids its constantly a struggle because no one is paying attention.

One thing about these guys is they are just playing for fun and have lives outside of basketball that can take priority. This means that getting the whole team together for practice is a miraculous event.

Gamer of the day goes to Niels Bergenthum. His superb play helped us to our domination on Saturday.


Life Outside of Basketball

Does not exist.

TJW

P.S. Lily Madsen (a good high school friend) is coming tomorrow to visit on her way back from Africa. It will be nice to see a familiar face. Hope all is well. DEUCES!