Technicals fouls are a part of officiating basketball. Good officials try to avoid calling them directly.
Yesterday I was forced to call two, but the first technical was validated by an unlikely source: The offending player's father, also the school's athletic director.
Some technicals are issued indirectly, for bookkeeping errors or delay of game infractions. Others are issued directly for violations of the sportsmanship code. Most often, a player or coach ends up calling the direct technical themselves, the inappropriate comment or act speaking for itself and removing conjecture from the official's decision. Yesterday was no different. However, a pair of prevailing thoughts emerge this morning as a result of those two calls.
Basketball is a contact sport, but players, coaches and officials don't always agree with the premise that not all contact will result in a foul. Good officials apply seasoned discretion in deciding what contact needs to be called and which contact does nothing but stop the game needlessly.
Second, I'm bemused by the comment, "I didn't even touch him (or her)!" Video often confirms a different conclusion, but in the moment of the game, why is obvious contact so often denied by the offending player? I doubt it's because the player can't accept responsibility. Is it because the emotion of the moment changes physical perception so drastically?
Yesterday, minor contact occurred after a perimeter shot was blocked cleanly without heavy body contact at the apex of the attempt. The shooter, upset at the absence of a whistle, looked at me and screamed loud enough for the entire gym to hear, "What are you looking at?"
Bang -- technical issued immediately. The player's coach asked what was said, offering that she couldn't hear over the crowd noise. The coach knew what was said; this was a test for me to pass as the calling official. I told the coach what was said, and the coach asked me, "So you'll be looking for what they say now, too?" I replied, "I don't look to call technicals but I can't allow that behavior to pass. Now both teams know where the line for sportsmanship is."
The host school's AD took us to our dressing room for halftime and told me, "Don't let that kid give you too much grief. She talks back to her father, too." I told him the player had approached me before the second quarter and offered, "Sir, I didn't mean to disrespect you with that comment," to which I replied pleasantly, "And I didn't mean any disrespect by hitting you with the tech."
The athletic director went further. He told me he issued a technical foul on her the night before. When I asked if he was an official, he replied, "I don't officiate. I'm her father. She deserved it, and I would have called it on her, too."
Phew.
Yesterday's contest was a championship game for Maryland's eastern shore private schools and the first game I'd worked for each of the competing schools. I don't care how confident you are -- a department I usually don't lack for -- when you call a technical, you worry about the backlash, no matter how well-deserved the foul is.
Sometimes your support and confirmation comes from the most unlikely of sources.
Regards...
(Photo courtesy of Huntington (IN) University and the Mid-Central Conference)
~ T.C. Cameron played the role of writer and referee yesterday, hustling to The Capital newspaper in Annapolis for a shift on the prep sports desk after officiating the title tilt.
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