I was watching a 6th-grade girls' game yesterday and saw an unfortunate mistake. I made a ruling (more on that later), now I wonder if I was right:

Close game, less than three minutes remaining. During rebounding action under red's basket, the ball goes out of bounds and the lead official says "white". While white is getting set for their press-break inbounds play, the official hands the ball to a red player, who inbounds to a teammate. who passes to another for an easy lay-up to tie the game. Red is fouled on the shot by the white player who was on her way to inbound the ball.

The referee now realizes his error (with help from the white team's coach, who points out that the official indicated that it was white's ball, but gave it to red). The two officials confer at mid court, then the more experienced official (not the one who made the error) comes to me for help. Because he knows that I am a retired official and was the local NF rules interpreter until about five years ago, he is looking for guidance.

He tells me that yes, his partner did intend for the ball to be inbounded by white. He doesn't know why he gave it to red. Is there anything they can do about it?

I gave him my opinion, but now I wonder if I blew it (after five years of not studying, I'm a little rusty on the finer points). This is what I told him:

This is not a "correctable error" by definition. This is a mistake by the official. I said that there was no way to take the points off the board in this situation -- the score had to stand, no time put back on the clock. Basically, the official said "sorry" and play continued with the free throw. (The good news is that white held on to win by five, so the official's mistake did not cost white the game.)

As I thought about the situation after the game, I'm not sure that red should have shot the free throw. There are situations that an official can correct a mistake (not to be confused with a "correctable error"). For example, if red had inbounded the ball and the official noticed his mistake before red scored, he could have blown his whistle and given the ball to white to inbound. Any elapsed time would be lost. But since the mistake wasn't discovered until after the basket, we can't take the points down, right? And the foul by white has to stand...but should red have gotten the free throw?

The free throw would still be awarded, since the foul did occur. I would think since an error has been recognized at this point, shoot the free throw with noone on the lane, then award white the ball at the end line (spot depending on the result of the free throw).

You gave good advice. Once the ball has been inbounded, it is not correctable.

NO, Not correctable. Play on.

mrsref, In your situation above, I don't think you can blow the ball dead and give it to white. Once it is in play the "mistake" stands and is forgotten about isn't it? You were correct on your advice to the officials, unfortunate, but that is how the cookie crumbles occasionally, that is why we need to take our time and make sure everything is as it should be.

I believe this was correctable up until the basket was made (first dead ball after the clock had legally started). After that, count the points and foul.

This is not correctable, nor is it fixable. The official screwed up and everybody has to live with it, unfortunately. Mrsref's advice to the officials was right.

And for tjchamp, if you look through Rule 2-10 (in either the FED or NCAA rulebook), I think you'll see that the situation is not correctable, even if caught before the "statute of limitations" runs out for correctable errors.

Good job, mrsref!
No more second guessing for you.
mick

The referee now realizes his error (with help from the white team's coach, who points out that the official indicated that it was white's ball, but gave it to red). The two officials confer at mid court, then the more experienced official (not the one who made the error) comes to me for help. Because he knows that I am a retired official and was the local NF rules interpreter until about five years ago, he is looking for guidance.

I not sure about anyone else , but why would an official go to someone sitting in the stands.

I know that this is besides the point but, I have never seen that done.

Any thoughts??

As officials we need to make a decision (right or wrong) and stick with it.

Any thoughts as to looking elsewhere for answers??

A new official's thoughts are pure and honest. He thinks the important thing is fairness. He looks for help anywhere he can find it ... even in the stands.
We outgrow the aberration.

I would tend to say that at the sixth grade level we take a lot of liberties with the rules on a lot of things. With this in mind, even though not supported by rule, I don't believe that it would be unthinkable to have a do-over in this situation, giving the ball to the correct team and taking the points off the board. There is a REAL good chance that at this level,(and often at higher levels) neither coach will know exactly what the rules say about the situation, so going forward without hesitation, one can usually sell a common sense type call of this nature without a problem. :)