I was officiating grade school games yesterday. My first game there was a problem that I feel like we didn't correct in the right way. Last eleven seconds of a close game, players tied up the ball. I called jump ball and we went the direction the arrow was pointing.
About 6 seconds went by and we had a dead ball. The person doing the clock hit the buzzer and motioned for me and the other ref. He told us, he forgot to change the arrow, so it should be the other team's ball when I called jump ball.
I was wanting to let the clock remain the same and reward the team, which should of had it in the first place, with the ball. My partner said " No we will put approx. 6 secs. on the clock and reward the team with the ball." I felt this was wrong, but being he has more experience than my 2 years, we went his way.
With the coach arguing about his call, I felt we made the wrong call.
However, at the end it didn't matter. The team which got the reward of the ball, still lost by 3.
Was I right? Was my partner right? Were we both wrong?
Eddie

Eddie, This is not a correctable error. Once you give it to the wrong team (team A) the only thing you can do is point the arrow in the direction of team B for the next jump ball.

John

Take a snapshot.
 

A good D1 official told me that you should take a "snapshot" of the situation. It comes with experience, but you should try to keep in your head what direction and who has the ball. Because if there is any confusion, you know who you gave the ball to last, and then you know who to give it to next time.

Nothing here is correctable. Go from your dead ball situation, with whatever time is left on the clock and now have the arrow pointed in the direction of the team that should have gotten it earlier. It may not seem fair but that is what the rules call for. Situations like this are always magnified when it happens late in the game, but handled the same way every time. Live and learn.

You know your gonna have problems in lower level games with arrows, clock, book...
Just a tip but I think most of us keep the AP "arrow" (direction) in addition to the table to avoid these situtions.
Some of us will change our extra whistle from one pocket to the other to keep the arrow. I will use a rubberband on my wrist and switch. (I determine the direction when I'm facing the table)
Usually, I will check with partner when it's getting near crunch time (during TO or free throw...) to see if he & I have the same direction.

...they went thata way...or was it that way?

GO WITH YOUR GUT!
 

Sometimes it takes a reminder(cattle prod in most cases) to ignite the rule book data base in our brains. If you felt your partner was incorrect (which he was) you have all the right to question (professionaly) call. As mentioned, once the inbound pass is completed, the play is not correctable at that point. Remember that the possesion arrow will go to the penalized team. Also, experience doesn't alway's mean years officiated.

winston, I don't think his partner was correct about putting time on the clock.

NEVER put time back on the clock unless it was a timer error you have definte knowledge of. Even if it was correctable, you still would not add time.

Another good practice is that when there is a jump ball, the official who brought the ball in needs to make sure the arrow was switched. I know a bunch of refs who make up little arrows on card stock paper and if there isnt one at the table they give them one.

I actually move a roll of LifeSavers from front pocket to front pocket as the arrow changes. I really get funny looks when I do this.