25 Or 6 To 4 (Chicago, 1969) ...
 

I know that the following won't put an end to the Forum debate on whether to verbalize "Two, Four" or "Twenty-four" when reporting a foul, but it has ended the debate for me.

My local IAABO board had its "new rules" meeting tonight, which followed a meeting of all local IAABO interpreters in the State of Connecticut (Connecticut, the Land of Steady Habits, likes consistency). The Connecticut State IAABO interpreter was present at my local meeting tonight.

We were shown a NFHS (labeled) Power Point on the new rules. Keep in mind that sometimes IAABO International, or IAABO State, or local boards, "edit" such Power Points, making the presentation a type of NFHS/IAABO"hybrid" presentation.

On the topic of the new two hand reporting, one of the slides stated to verbalize the number, "Twenty-four" rather than the numerals, "Two, Four".

For those of you, both IAABO, and others, who have already been reporting numerals, this isn't a big change, but for Connecticut, this is a big deal. Connecticut has been reporting numerals, and training rookie officials to report numerals, for over forty years, and for Connecticut to make this big change there was definitely backing by IAABO International, and, most likely, backing from the NFHS.

I fully realize my single post won't end the Forum debate on this issue, but from now on, I'm a "Twenty-four" kind of guy, Connecticut can take a small step back from being the Land of Steady Habits, and old dogs can learn new tricks (at least, I hope so, I'll have to wait until my first scrimmage next month to find out; using two hands, and verbalizing numbers may be like walking and chewing gum, which could present a problem for this grizzled veteran).

The new NFHS officials manual also says to use twenty four instead of two four this year.


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Sitting Cross Legged On The Floor ...
 

Thanks for the confirmation.

The NFHS Manual has always (as long as I've been officiating) said to report the full number and not the digits, even before the change to two hands.

It's also in the pre-season guide.

This was settled for me a decade ago when Bktballref (Tony) just asked me, "is the number on the jersey 24 or 2-4? Report the number". Boom. Just made 100% sense to me.

Well there's another side of this, and that's diction. In maritime navigation, when you're on the radio with another ship telling him what course you're coming to, you don't say, "three hundred fifty-nine." You say "tree fife niner." Obviously when talking on a radio you exaggerate pronunciations in order to make sure you're heard. But the point is diction, i.e. making sure the recipient understands you clearly. I'm sure that was the basketball logic once upon a time.

With one hand it maybe made sense: verbal diction that matches the individual numerals. But with two hands when the speaker is in relatively close proximity to the scorer, I agree that speaking the whole number at once makes more sense and sounds a lot more professional.

I'm going to the beer store

When I started officiating in the mid-90s, we were told to give each number. Part of is was to slow you down and I cannot think of anyone that did not know what you were saying. So if you had 24, you said "Two, four."

Another part of the reasoning is that people would say numbers like 13, 14, 15 and often not enunciate the numbers well and all would be heard was "teen" part and if you were not deliberate as well, you would be misunderstood. And your accent or loudness of your voice would also be an issue.

I have no problem with the new standard, but it was also silly to act like people did not know what two numbers meant. It usually helped the scorer know what you were saying. The only issue I have with the newer mechanic with two-hands is that officials would be so quick to report they would forget to do basics to report the foul.

Peace