Hope this never happens again, but

[ILIK2RUN]

Originally posted by BktBallRef
Rutledge and his partner made the right call. You have no choice but to call a double foul. When each official signaled at the same time, each coach thought he was going to get a call. Two fouls have been called. You can't erase either of them. A double foul was and is the correct call.

This did happen in the MSU-ISU regional championship game last year. The U1 and U2 talked about it and tried to come up with one foul. But the referee, Curtis Shaw, put a stop to the nonsense and made the crew go with the double foul. There were plenty of questions after the game about how two different officials saw two different things. But there were no question as to whether a double foul was the proper way to handle it or not.

The larger question is how this happened. Did either official stop the clock with a raised fist prior to giving a preliminary signal? Was the proper eye contact made? I wasn't there but if I had to guess, I would say the answer to both questions is no. Too many HS officials don't stop the clock properly when making a PC or block call. They go directly to the preliminary signal. Incidentally, that's what happened in the MSU-ISU game too.

I am relatively new to officiating, but I really like the point here about stopping the clock appropriately first and making proper eye contact before signalling. That way, if there is a conflict, everyone doesn't have to know until the officials are ready to signal. I learn (both good and bad things) from veteran officials. Being new, I often humble myself and follow the lead of the veteran. With that, I always keep eye contact with my partner when a call is made. I guess it's the ego thing that many of my partners have had. Nevertheless, very interesting case.