[fullor30]

Originally Posted by fiasco

Okay, I'm going to have to pipe in late on this one.

In my opinion, you only set yourself up for trouble, and you intentionally set up the player by saying anything to the effect of "What did you say?"

First of all, what kind of response are you looking for? Several people have said you're hoping the kid will "take back" what was said. How? So you're hoping the kid, in the heat of the moment, will just come to you and say, "I'm sorry, Mr. Ref. I said something I shouldn't have, and I apologize."

That's pretty unrealistic, if you ask me.

So, what you've done now is put the player in a position where he/she either has to lie ("I didn't say anything" or simply "nothing"), or is forced to repeat himself/herself, which you've expressly asked him or her to do, so how are you then going to ding the player for it? That's called entrapment.

If you are 100% sure you hear it the first time, whack the first time. If you aren't 100% sure of what you hear the first time, either ignore it, or say something more constructive than "What did you say?" such as "Now, I thought I heard you say something, but I couldn't be sure. If I catch you saying something inappropriate, it's going to be a technical foul. You got me?"

You truly are aptly named.