inadvertant shistle

Originally posted by lrpalmer3
I had a coach tonight that whistled to get his players attention. It never caused a real problem, but it could have. When he whistled about 6 players and at least one of us officials took a quick glance over there thinking it was an official's whistle.

1. Can we tell him to stop?
2. What if a player stops dribbling and travels with the ball because he thinks the whistle blew? Can we tell him to stop after that happens?

p.s. I got home tonight and saw Phil Jackson whistling too.

Excellent question.

Luckily I have not experienced a whistling coach. What I would probably do would depend on reaction of the players (almost like an inadvertant horn going during play). If the defense or offence stops playing in some way I may blow it dead and resume with a throw in from the closest spot out of bounds. I would not allow subs unless it were for an injured player.

If it were a coach whistling that interrupts a play, I might give the coach a warning. I say might because if he is interrupting a breakaway opportunity I most likely will whack him with a T.

If a player travelled because he thought the whistle went - blow it dead and give it back to his/her team.

Really how hard is it to use hand signals to call specific offences/defences. I think my University coach had coloured pieces of construction paper for calling the Blue or Green defences.