Hey,

I have been having this debate with some of my partners about Free throw administration. I know I will be corrected if wrong, but doesn't the rule book still say that the calling official on a T shall administer the throws? If so that means the calling official will be underneath administering the throws and the non calling partner inbounding the ball at half court. To me, this makes more sense. The non-calling official at half court watching and/or calming things down.

We have done it this way and the otherway with the non-calling official administering the throws. Remember........years ago the trail admistered at least the first free throw.

I have partners that do it either way and we have handled it differently across the state.

How do you admister it in your state? And what do you think?

I would think this would be addressed in the official's manual rather than the rule book since you're talking about official's procedure. If I remember correctly, the official's manual says to handle a technical foul the same as any shooting foul.

That being said, I think you need to use common sense. If you T the coach, have your partner seatbelt him (I assume from your monicker that you are in Washington State which is a coaching box state). On a T of a coach, I also like to have the official that called the "T" be the administering official to get as far away from the coach as possible.

Z

In my games we have not been concerned with who is where. We just do what is convenient. If I see my partner calls a T and my other partner is meeting with the official who called the T, then I will procede to retrieve the ball and go to the basket where we will shoot.

There is another advantage to the calling official administering the free throws: it puts the calling official further away from the bench of the offending team. I believe that this is the best way to handle what is, in all likelihood, a tense and potentially volatile situation.

Bart, if your partners are in a discussion and you're retrieving the ball. . . who's watching the players?

Officials should NOT be ball retrievers. A player or cheerleader or fan or somebody will get it, even if you have to ask them to do so. Keep your eyes on players -- dead ball officiate!

I tend to agree with that. Usually we put the calling official at the C or L depending on the nature of the foul. But sometimes if it is a player T, then it might make sense for the calling official to have a conversation with the coach. Especially when they want and explaination. But I have played it by ear before.

Hmmm...

If the T is in the first half, then the administering official will be nearly in front of the offending team's bench.

If the T is in the second half, the administering official will be a little farther away (opposite end, same side) than the other official (opposite side, near center court) during the throws, but will be right in front of the bench as soon as the ball goes the other way.

Better, IMHO, to have the calling official handle the throw-in -- opposite side, center court.

Its funny, I actually typed the line " of course I'm watching the players as I am retrieving the ball", when I first posted my reply. Then I erased it, because I didn't think it needed to be said. "Ball retrieving" If the ball is on the floor in front of you, I guess you can refuse to pick it up. I wouldn't want to be a ball retriever. As you are watching the players, and a kid is holding the ball, I guess you shouldn't ask for it, I wouldn't want to be a ball retriever. I guess it needs to be said, I don't go running down the court or down the hall to retrieve the ball with my back to the players.
I don't know about your conversations with you partner after calling a T, but our conversations are usually very brief, maybe takes about 5-7 seconds. So, yes I do procede to keep things moving. And yes, IF there is a need to stand in the middle of players, until action dictates i can move on, then I will stay put, But, uaually you can keep things moving.

Well, obviously we didn't understand each other, Bart. I would not consider bending down to pick up the ball to be "retrieving" the ball. I was not trying to impugne your skills, Bart. My point was merely that we don't want officials to be following the ball underneath the bleachers, or behind the popcorn stand to get the ball.

Maybe you don't think it needs to be said, and so I'm sorry for wanting to state the obvious. Really. But I've seen officials (even experienced officials) do these things. So I thought it was a point that worth making. Again, I was only trying to stress the importance of dead ball officiating. Sorry if it came across the wrong way.

Actually, I was probably over reacting. You are correct, these things do need to be pointed out. There are a lot of officials trying to learn from what is said on this forum.