Incredibly Embarrassing Moment
 

I have to make a confession.

This is really hard, not only because I'm re-living this incredibly embarrassing moment, but I'm doing so among some of the best officials I've had the pleasure to converse with.

You might wonder why I would say anything, then. Well, I think it's because I feel awful about it, and a part of me hopes it's not as bad as I've made it out to be in my head.

Here's what happened...

During the 4th quarter of a hotly contested varsity boys contest, one of my partners calls a shooting foul. I switched to the lead, so I was administering the free throws. Just as the free thrower for Team A gets possession of the ball, a teammate of his on the free throw lane pushes a player from Team B that was lined up next to him. My other partner, who is the C during the free throws, calls a pushing foul.

At this point we get together to make sure we correctly handle things at this point. We decide to clear the lane and allow the player from Team A, who originally got fouled on the shot, to attempt his two merited free throws. Following those two attempts, we'll go to the other end and shoot 1-and-1 (Team B was in the bonus).

After the initial two free throws by Team A, with the lanes clear, we go to the other end for the 1-and-1. BRAIN FART TIME! We didn't bring the players on the lane lines for the 1-and-1. The player for Team B shoots the first free throw, and misses. At this point my partner and I know we royally screwed up.

We get together and decide this isn't correctable, so the only course of action is to go to the AP arrow, which goes to Team B (the team that just shot and missed the 1st of a 1-and-1). The HC for Team A is not happy at all, and I can't blame him. All we can do is apologize for our mistake, and let him know that going to the arrow is our only course of action, as we can't assume the rebound by either team, nor can we re-shoot the 1st of the 1-and-1.

It turns out that Team A loses by 5 points. Did our mistake cost them the game? Probably not, but that doesn't make me feel much better about the error. Yes, my partners booted the play too, but I'm very hard on myself and am having a hard time letting this go. I guess I'm afraid this could end up hurting me somehow in the future, whether that's due to the assignor for this league not using me and my crew as much, or my chances of moving up taking a hit.

I'm not looking for sympathy. I just needed to get this off my chest, and this seemed like as good a place to do it as any.

Thanks for reading.

You made a mistake as a crew, you've owned it, and you moved on.

Next time slow down when you have a weird situation to administer and get it right.

Feel better?

LOL. Well, getting that off my chest felt good. But hearing you say that is cool, thanks.

When I've had conversations with newer officials I often tell them the only way you may learn is when you kick something royally and learn from it. I sure have heck have kicked some major ones in my time where I didn't know or understand the rule. After making this mistake I learned what I did wrong and made sure I didn't do it again....

Even as a veteran I've goofed a call/rule or two and still have to learn from my mistakes.

Sounds like as a vet this would apply to you as well. Learn from it and move on because I bet this will never happen again because you made that error in this game.

Sometimes the only way to learn from a mistake is to screw it up royally first. You won't be the first or last official to ever do this too :)

Absolutely not. There's slightly less than a 50% chance (by my unscientific math) that Team B would've gotten the rebound anyway.

As for the rest of it, what Rich said. :)

Thanks for coming to my pity party, guys.

Wouldn't this be a team control foul?

I'd like some additional info on the foul. This push seems totally unessessaru and unrelated to basketball. Would an intentional foul have been the better call?

Whoa. I'd say you're right. That's big-time awareness right there!

Clear the lane, shoot the 2 FTs for A, award Team B the ball at the spot nearest the foul?

Turns out the two players are cousins, and they were messing around. Why they did that during a close game boggles my mind, but rules are rules. Could it have been more than a "normal" foul... absolutely.

Rule 4-12-2

A team is in control of the ball:
a. when a player of the team is in control
b. while a live ball is being passed among teammates
c. during an interrupted dribble
d. when a player of the team has disposal of the ball for a throw-in

Part "d" makes me think that there is no team control when a player of a team has disposal of the ball for a free throw, because if that's the case then why did the NFHS say that in "d" without saying something similar for a free-thrower?

That's my interpretation, and it could very well be wrong.

Yeah, team control foul. No FTs for Team B. Ball OOB nearest foul.

Look up player control and see if "A" gets you there. IIRC, it's "Holding a live ball inbounds."

Because it's covered in Part A. The free thrower is holding a live ball. That's the definition of being in control.

For a throw-in, disposal doesn't necessarily mean "holding" the ball. It just means "you have a reasonable opportunity to be holding the ball, but are opting not to." Disposal for a FT means you already have the ball.

Oh, I get that. When I first look at the rule book, and saw that, I was with you. Part d of that rule makes me wonder. Like devil's advocate, right?