Bad Situation, How Should It Be Handled?

[walter]

I'm observing a game Saturday afternoon for our rating committee and the following occurs. A leads B 53-51 three minutes to go. A1 (A's best player) picks up his fifth foul, B1 to shoot 1 and 1. Official 1 comes to the table reports the foul and tells the team A coach that A1 has 5 fouls. A1 walks over and stands by the team A bench but is still on the floor. For some reason, official 1 doesn't ask for a 30 sec. clock but instead proceeds to take his position as trail to shoot the free throws. No sub in the game. Official 2 proceeds to announce the 1 and 1 and bounces the ball to B1. Official 1 does nothing. B1 shoots the first free throw and misses. A2 rebounds and throws the ball to A1 who drives in, is fouled by B1 but still proceeds to dunk the ball and then does a chin up on the rim. You guessed it, Official 1 calls the foul on B1 and then a "T" on A1. As he goes to the table, he is met by the team B coach who is SCREAMING that A1 fouled out on the previous play and that the dunk shouldn't count and that his player (B1) should get to re-attempt his 1 and 1 and that there should be a "T" for having an illegal player in the game. The official tells Team B coach to "sit down and shut up while he confers with his partner". The two officials get together and this is what they decide to do. They wipe out the basket by A1 and the foul by B1 (B's best player and this would have been his fifth). They rule that because the play should not have happened (i.e. a sub was not brought into the game) the ball was and remained dead after the first foul call on A1. They assess a technical foul to A1 for dunking a dead ball and a technical foul to Team A for unspotsmanlike conduct for having a disqualified player participate in the game. Since they don't know how much time was left when all of this started they decide not to put time back on the clock. They decide to resume by having B1 re-attempt his 1 and 1. They call B1 to the free throw line and allow him to shoot his 1 and 1 and he makes both (A-53, B-53). Team A coach (not to mention the fans and the varsity coach)is going nuts "you guys screwed up", etc. yelling profusely. Official 2 "T"s coach of Team A and tells him because of the two previous "T"s this "T" causes his ejection. After a delay in which they threaten to end the game if the Team A coach doesn't leave, the coach is led away by the AD, they shoot 6 free throws for the technicals, and needless to say, B goes on to win the game. When I tried to talk to these guys in the locker room, they adamantly defended their position so I quickly shut my mouth and left. The review I turned into the rating committee was not flattering to say the least. I know what I think they should have done but I'm interested to hear what this group thinks.