oday, we begin by playing Trivial Pursuit. To earn your striped pie piece, answer these two questions.

First, name a situation where you can have a violation during a dead ball. I know of two, so to make it harder, you have to guess which one I’m thinking of.

Second, what is the earliest opportunity for a referee to miss a violation during a game?

I was going to tell you that the answers were printed on the back of the page, but the editor didn’t think that was very funny. So, I’ll give you a hint — both questions share the same answer. It’s the jump ball.

Keeping things in focus

In Part I, I lamented my lack of focus during a recent jump ball. It was the end of a long night, and I had a lot on my mind regarding that final game. I decided to get some advice on maintaining focus. I got three good ideas from other officials who posted messages at The Official Forum.

Continued...