During a basketball game situations come up and things can easily go wrong. The biggest thing as an official is to prevent any type of issue that could interrupt a game. Most of the time officials prevent problems from occurring and those measures go unseen, and that is the way we like it. However, when an official or an officiating crew make a mistake, it is front and center for everyone to see and replay over and over again.
An example of good preventative officiating could be everything that takes place before the game for the referees.
When the officials take the court their jurisdiction begins, so anything happening while the officials are in sight of the court will affect the game. Before the game, the head official will check the scorebook right around the 10-minute mark on the warm-up clock because by this time the coaches should have the rosters in the book and the starters should be marked.
Most officials like to get to the scorers’ table a little before the 10-minute mark to make sure that this is actually getting taken care of. If anything in the book is wrong after that time the team is assessed a technical foul and the opposing team begins the game with two foul shots and will start with possession of the ball. We as officials always try to stress to each other that we never want to start a game with a technical foul unless we really have to.
Another aspect of the game that goes unseen is the captains’ meeting before the we start play. The officials meet the captains and coaches for both teams at center court and the officials will go over the sportsmanship message and they will ask the coaches if everyone on the team is legally equipped. Meanwhile, the officials have already done a quick inspection of the players to see if they are wearing anything they shouldn't, one example would be leg sleeves or arm sleeves (see guideline below) that are not matching colors. So before the coaches answers if his players are “legally equipped according the NFHS rules and PIAA adoptions,” the officials point out to them the players they noticed that are wearing illegal equipment so that it can be fixed before the start of the game.
Arm and leg compression sleeves must:
-Be white, black, beige, or a single solid school color.
-Be the same color for each team member.
-Meet the logo requirements in 3-6.
-Be worn for medical reasons.
Again, if something like illegal equipment is not caught before the game and the coach certifies that all his/her players are legally equipped and it is found later in the game that the players on the court are wearing illegal equipment it will result in a technical foul. As I said previously we hope to avoid that.
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