Here is the thing about officiating high school basketball – the first time that an egregious foul is not whistled under the basket, the quality of the game is torpedoed. 

Especially in the early season, officiating plays an incredibly important role in training teams how to play basketball. Here, I am referring to the technical aspects of the game. Is the jump-stop maneuver traveling? Is going over an opponent’s back (with contact) when trying to reach a rebound a foul? What about a collision at mid-court in a loose ball situation? What about the foot shuffle adjustment many players make a habit of when launching a jump shot? And my favorite, how can one tie up the ball without fouling the ball-handler? 

Players can be taught the rules in practice, but until they experience it in a game, it is, well, just theory.

If that first clubbing under the basket is not whistled, the teams take note, and a very ugly game is likely to follow. 

Everyone adjusts accordingly. The adrenaline-filled players will seldom not accept the loosely-called physical game under the basket; they will simply reset their personal boundaries and get away with whatever is allowed. 

The result is often not pretty. A loosely-called game has a dramatic effect on the mental aspects of the game as well. It introduces frustration and calls into immediate question the authority of the officiating trio.    

It also guts the credibility of the calls which follow in the remaining 3-plus periods. Once the genie is out of the bottle, trying to put it back in the bottle in the final quarter – especially in close games – is a disaster.

There is one chance to save a game that has begun with the officials swallowing their whistles. That opportunity is coming out to start the second half. A clean break and a fresh start can right the ship and get the game back within the bounds of the rulebook. 

It has been said that if all the fouls that occur in a game are called, that the game would simply go on and on and on. That is likely true. But we are not talking about normal contact; after all basketball is, no doubt, a physical game. No, here the subject is egregious fouls, especially under the basket. In short, muggings.

There are certainly a hundred variables which effect the ebb and flow of basketball. It is what makes the game so exciting. Training the teams to play the game properly is a huge part of the charter of anyone wearing a striped shirt.    

Based on some early season games eye-witnessed over the past seven years, the responsibilities of officials in training the teams needs to be refreshed.

That recommendation does not come lightly. Anyone who has read sports coverage in the Monitor knows that this sportswriter is a huge fan of officials. When interviewing officials who work UIL sports, there is always one common reason for sacrificing their evenings to regulate scholastic athletics: love of the game. 

One of my favorite officiating crews regularly works home games at Alba-Golden. The nature of the Alba-Golden gym (where one can end up in the third row with a single leap from the court) requires more than just application of the rules. It also requires excellent judgment, the ability to communicate and the graciousness to be human. 

It is the objective here to offer an observation, as well as a couple of thoughts on how to nurture the application of the rulebook in gyms around East Texas.    

Recommendation number one: Enact a ‘two-game per day’ limit for basketball officials. This will certainly help in combating fatigue and the effect that fatigue can have on decision-making. Should the governing bodies of officialdom decide to adopt such a measure it would certainly affect scheduling. So be it.

Recommendation two: move all junior varsity games to Monday and Thursday, and retain the varsity games on Tuesday and Friday. That should allow the two-game per day limit to be enacted. 

It is understood that such a change would create a host of logistic issues for schools. However, the other option is believing that there is no issue and retaining the status quo.

The final recommendation is to not only acknowledge the responsibility to train basketballers in the application of the rulebook, but to champion that charter.