Fouled out, not really

[Nevadaref]

In light of the discussion about a recent NBA game in which an official checked on Shaq's foul total, I thought I should share this.

In the large HS (1000+ enrollment) championship game of this past weekends AAU tournament, I had an unusual situation. For the first time in my officiating career I had to undisqualify a player. It was a bit odd to explain to the coaches as both teams were from Utah and with both officials being from Nevada we had no previous relationship. They were quite pleasant about it, though.

The details of the situation:
1. close game the whole way, eventually decided by 2 in OT.
2. Blue #5 is a 6-6 250lb. center. He has two personal fouls and technical in the first half. I even peek in the book at halftime to see who is in foul trouble, so I know he has 3 fouls. Foul total at the half: Blue 12, White 3. Complaining about this is why Blue #5 received his T from my partner.
3. Blue #45, the other post player, has one personal foul in the first half and then picks up three more in about 1 minute during the 3rd quarter. His coach takes him out. I am quite aware that he has 4 fouls.
4. With 3:35 remaining in the 4th Q, Blue #5 makes an obvious foul 80 ft from the basket after White grabs a defensive rebound.
5. The scorer and timer are two JV players from the local HS who have done a great job all weekend. They now inform my partner and I that this foul is Blue #5's fifth.
6. Since my partner called the foul, I get to tell the coach. He and his player both insist that the kid has only 4 (three personal and one technical). The coach is very polite in his disagreement. I know that I have not called a foul on B5 this half, so I go and ask my partner if he remembers calling one besides the current foul. He says that he might have, but doesn't remember.
7. I return and tell the coach, "Coach, I need sub, please."
8. I am a bit perplexed, as I cannot recall his fourth foul, but we get the game going again, and the big guy sits until Blue #45 fouls with 1:33 remaining and the score 63-61 in favor of White.
9. I am 100% sure that this is his fifth. But no indication of this comes from the table, so, during the first free throw, I check with the table and they hold up 4 fingers. I look at my partner and mouth, "That's what happened." I had instantly remembered that both B5 and B45 were in the area when my partner whistled B45 for his fourth and knew that it had been incorrectly recorded as B5. My partner tends to report rather quickly and table likely just missed him first showing 4 fingers.
10. Before the second attempt, I hit the whistle and get together with my partner in the lane and tell him, "You know, we should fix this." He agrees and I head over the the table.
11. I motion both coaches over and inform them that I have definite knowledge that this was Blue #45's fifth foul. Blue coach says, "Come on, you can't foul him out, too!" At this point I let him know the good news that #5 was going to be allowed back in the game. He became much happier and agreed that I was right. I told him sorry about the two minutes that he had to sit, but this is the best I can do to make it right. Lastly, I directly told the coach of White, who had been present and listening to the entire explanation, "You know this is the right thing to do," to which he merely nodded.
12. White missed both FTs on #45's fifth foul, Blue came down got the ball to #5 and he scored to tie the game. Then both teams traded baskets and missed attempts in the final seconds to send us to OT at 65-65. I was glad because the impact of the two minutes the big guy had to sit out due to our "officiating" mistake was greatly mitigated by the additional four minutes of playing time.
13. Blue #5 played the final 5:33 without fouling and when White's desperation heave from 60 ft only hit the backboard as time expired they had won 69-67.
14. Total fouls for the game: White 14, Blue 23.

The sportsmanship and class of both teams and coaches was evident (I envy the Utah officials for this quality play and behavior that they get to see. And perhaps they deserve some credit for it, too.) as they (and even a few parents!) came over to tell us we did a good job after the game. I don't think that would have happened if we had not corrected the situation with Blue #5, no matter who won.
The bottom line is that:
Even though there were a few tough calls in the game and Blue's supporters voiced their displeasure in the first half with the foul count, what they remembered at the end of the game was that we corrected our mistake and had tried to be fair. We came out looking good after a tough game.

In closing, I'll just say that despite having heard many opinions to the contrary, I normally do try to be aware of how many fouls key players have, and in this case it helped us to "get it right." So while it is not really our job, it certainly can help the game to know.

[Edited by Nevadaref on Jun 4th, 2004 at 05:10 AM]