Basketball gifts: a shot clock, eliminate sportsmanship lines, consistency by officials

It’s almost time for Santa to spread some Christmas cheer. Here are some gifts for those involved with basketball in Maine.

Assigners of officials: More officials to assign to games

Athletic administrators: A list of 25 officials to work their home/away games

Basketball Commission members: Schools vote to use three officials for all regular season games

Basketball commissioner: All five  IAABO Boards be consistent when calling the contact rule.

Board 111 refs: The officials you work with are the only officials who will also provide your ratings.

Coaches: Get one official off their tournament list for every tournament and state game they play.

Disqualified players with five fouls: No fouling out, but any additional foul results in two foul shots and the ball for the offended team at the spot of the foul

Educators: Coaches who will teach life lessons that cannot be taught or  learned in the academic classrooms.

Fans: A shot clock for high school basketball.

Interpreters of the five  IAABO boards: Game tapes to help teach officials advantage and disadvantage on contact.

Maine Principals’ Association: A voucher system to ease transfer problems.

Officials: Extra whistles to call all the fouls.

Public address announcers: A good memory to remember when they can use the PA system during games.

Radio announcers/color analyst.: Remember to give the score more often.

School boards: The fortitude to support coaches about playing time, squad selections, team strategy and other players.

Scorers: Go back to having players raise their hands when they commit a foul.

Substitutes: More playing time.

Teams: Eighty-four foot courts, not 94-foot college courts, for tournament games at Bangor (Cross Insurance Center) and Portland (Expo and Cumberland Community Civic Center).

Team Managers: More thoughtful players to make their job easier.

Timers: Precision timing devices when the officials stop and start the clock.

Assists: Everyone use the same determining factor.

Backboards: Get cleaned more than once during the season.

Bangor High School teams: A couple of home games at the new Cross Insurance Center.

Calls by officials: Be consistent.

Coaches clinics: More clinics and more coaches to attend these clinics.

State boys and girls basketball champs in Classes A, B, C, D: Four-team tournaments after the state finals to determine the best team in the state for boys and girls

Class A state champions: Bring back the New England Basketball Tournaments

Cross Insurance Center: Consideration for a Class A state final.

Floors: Get swept more and not be slippery.

Pregame handshakes with officials: Allow fist bumping by officials

Prelims: Hold at  tournament sites.

Refs shirts: Return to black and white.

Rulebooks: To all who do not know the rules.

Sportsmanship: Eliminate the lines for shaking hands after a game.

Tournaments: Back to three-day formats: three games in three days, quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals.

Me: More good topics to write about.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all.