I had a situation in a game last week. I am lead in a fairly small gym. The stands are close to the court and I had my back to the stands.

The shooter is on my side of the court and a ball rolls onto the court at the same time that the shooter puts up the shot. I wave off the shot (before the shot went in) and give the ball back to the team which had just shot. I also warned the benches about this happening again.

Since I did not see how the ball was launched onto the floor, I felt I could not penalize. My partner did not see the ball come on the court either.

My question is: Is this unsportmanslike conduct and a "T" and any opinions on how I handled this situation.

Since the ball on the court apparently did affect the play, I would have let the basket stand. I don't believe a Technical foul was warranted unless you know that there was an intentional act by bench personnel to disrupt play. Ask the guilty bench to put the balls away and resume play with the ball being inbounded by the oppnents of the scoring team.

If you blew the whistle after the shot was in the air, it should have counted. The ball doesn't become dead on a whistle when the shot's in the air. See 6-7-5.

I agree with the "warning" and no T on the ball coming on the court.

Balls rolling on the court -Preventive Maintenance
 

Bob Jenkins is right- but you are also correct in blowing the whistle- The safety of the players is your first priority- Whenever you see people playing with balls on the sideline during live balls I tell them to put them away and also inform the management of the problem at the earliest opportunity- you don't want to be held liable in an injury law suit!!!

Pistol - I agree with the recommendations and that was my first reaction was the saftey of the kids. I was afraid that if I did not kill the play some kid was going to trip on the rolling ball. Once I blew the whistle I probably should have scored the bucket but since the ball rolled out from the team that was shooting, I figured that the other coach was going to want an unsportmanlike conduct "T", so to avoid any arguments I just killed it and gave the ball back to the team in possession.