Not enough attention can really be given to the importance of officials’ PCA’s.  That’s because of the natural human tendency for the basketball official, whether in the two- or three-person system, to be a “ball watcher.” It’s just not natural to look off-ball when the action has transitioned over to a partner’s primary coverage area.  The mind, thus the eyes and the full-scale attention, wants to fixate on the action involving and surrounding the ball.  Review of each official’s PCA boundaries is something that belongs in every pregame and firmly in the minds of all officials throughout any contest. 

But let’s not let the pendulum swing too far that way.  There’s something that complements and assists the concept of primary coverage areas, which is very much a necessity on any two- or three-man crew.  There is, for any official’s position, a SCA, a secondary coverage area that is essential and important.

When nothing is going on, as when there are no competitive matchups in a particular official’s PCA, they must realize that means a partner is probably overloaded in his PCA.  That’s when one’s area of coverage needs to be expanded to include his SCA where he needs to provide avid surveillance.  That can mean calling something necessary outside one’s PCA because the play was observed while “looking through” one’s PCA into his SCA. The area of an official’s secondary coverage responsibilities usually exist on the outer perimeter of the partner’s PCA, but may extend deeper depending on the status of the partner who’s tending to other necessary things.  That partner might be overloaded, understandably occupied by one particular contestable competitive matchup he can’t possible ignore, or he may be straightlined without an adequate view of the slot between offensive player and defender. 

When there’s nothing going on in your PCA, surveilling your SCA not only helps your partner out, you can observe a play that needs to be called outside your PCA.  That’s not “fishing in your partner’s pond.” That’s necessary coverage.  In extreme situations some might call this a “crew saver”, but it need not be as drastic as that.  It’s just the acknowledgment that there’s a lot going on sometimes and the crew is there to work together to call what needs to be called, and those things sometimes occur in what’s known as the off-ball official’s secondary coverage area.

90% of the time, each official can get the call needed to be gotten in their area. But 10% of the time they need a partner’s diligence to come and get a call that needs to be made.  Either way there’s a bond of trust that’s important.  In the first case, the two off partners trust that they can focus off-ball and that the one partner in whose PCA the competitive matchup is in will get the call and get it right.  In the second case, that partner trusts that if one of the other two come in their area to make a call, then it really had to be made.

An important consideration I’ve heard good crews agree on in pregame, is this:  “If there’s something you see in my area that needs to get called, assume that my attention is needed elsewhere in my PCA and, if it needs to be called, COME AND GET IT!” 

Come and get it, when the situation warrants it, means two things.  First, “come”; that is, don’t just make the call outside your PCA (in your SCA) a long ways away and turn around and report it.  Close down to a point nearer the infraction to show you were engaged on that play and needed to call it.  Secondly, “get it” means that you need to sell that call a little bit. Not to be overdone, selling it a little verifies to your partner and to the coaches and to any observers educated enough to know it that the call really did need to be made, but it wasn’t because you were merely ballwatching.  Close down nearer to the play, and call it.  Go and get it.

There are a variety of reasons to make a call outside one’s PCA that have nothing to do with the “ballwatching”.  It has to do with the concept of SCA principles, and merits the attention of any crew desiring to get it right.