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I worked a game at a preseason tournament this past week with a very senior official from our association. This was a 2 man crew and he, being the most senior, was the Referee and I was the Umpire.
My partner and I have worked together before and he respects me, so his pregame was rather lax. He only said to me, "Call your game and have fun," then went over to the table before the game and talked to the scorer/timer.
Now we are lined up for the jump ball with me in front of the table when the coach of white yells, "Hey wait! They have the wrong starters."
I turn around and glance at the score book. I can quickly tell two things: 1. the coach is right, blue clearly does have a couple of incorrect starters.
2. White has NO starters designated in the book at all! But does have their team lineup in.
I now went to center court and asked my partner if he checked the book prior to the game. He said no. He just chatted with the table people.
Ok, now we have a problem. I told him that I'd handle it. I went back to the white team's coach and said, "Coach, here's the deal, you're right about their starters, but you don't even have your starters marked in the book. So rather call Ts, what do say we just play ball?"
The coach accepted this and away we went.
Now, I know that what I did was not correct by the rules.
The question is What is correct?
Should each team receive a T?
Are they considered simultaneous, in which case we wouldn't shoot any free throws and would still have a jump ball to start?
Or do we say that white got the first T for failing to designate five starters at the 10 minute mark, and then blue gets a T for starting the wrong players and we had it brought to our attention before the ball became live, so it is penalized? This would mean that we do shoot 2 for blue, then 2 for white, and then give the ball to white and the arrow to blue(if nothing else goofy happens).
I just don't know if we can go back and penalize for an infraction at the 10 minute mark now, when my partner failed to check the book at that time.
What does everybody think?
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