6 on the Court -- unnoticed...

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by Raymond

My only problem with the thread was your focus on exam questions instead of coming to a conclusion about your options on the floor.

Originally Posted by BillyMac

If the actual (but quite rare) situation ever occurred on the court, I hope that I would interpret it the correct way, practically, and by the rulebook (they're not necessarily mutually exclusive).

If there was a "correct" way? Stupid NFHS rules editors.

Every call that we make should be (if possible) rule based (as if on a written exam). If not, it will be difficult for us to defend our calls when we get the phone call from our assigner early the following morning. When a coach loses a last second, one point game because (in his mind, forget about the missed layups, stupid fouls, bad coaching) the official "blew the call" (especially an unambiguous rule based call, not a subjective call) the situation can very quickly go up and down the chain of command: coach, athletic director, assigner, official. If the call was contrary to an unambiguous rule (not a subjective call) it will be a tough phone call to go along with our first cup of coffee in the morning.

Here's a typical written exam situation (rare, but it really happened). Several years ago, a conference championship game, one of our guys (trained by us, transferred to another board) who I worked with a dozen times, and whom I believed was an excellent official, when informed, while in the locker room immediately after the game (after leaving the vicinity of the court), that there was a scoring error and that the game was not a one point victory but should have gone into overtime, came back out to toss the jump ball for the overtime, that reversed the victory to the other team. It was more than phone calls, it made the front pages of various newspaper sports sections, naming the official, all over our small state.

The moral of the story, if possible, don't make up rules as you go along.

I hate "kicked" (unambiguous rule based, not subjective) rules, especially when I kick a rule, or the kicked rule involves me. I'm sure that we all do. From March, 2017:

Originally Posted by BillyMac

My worst call of the season, and it wasn't even my call. Late in a game my partner (a highly regarded state tournament official) kicks a rule regarding a double free throw violation and how to penalize the violation. I wasn't aware of his call, because I was keeping my eye on my own primary, but I could tell from his voice and body language that he was only 95% certain of the call, especially in his dealing with two questions from the coach. After the game, discussing the call, we discovered that he kicked the rule, costing the losing team (in an overtime game) a free throw, maybe two free throws, and the arrow, near the end of regulation. I should have approached him with a "What did you have?" which would have saved us from kicking the rule. Instead, I just let him make his call, make his explanation to the coach, and I just put the ball in play as if he knew 100% what he was doing. The losing coach politely approached us in the locker room after the game with a question and we had to admit that we kicked the call ... I could have been a better partner.