How would you handle??

[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

Originally posted by ref18
I was asked this question by a fellow official in my association about this situation which happened earlier today.

Major Bantom Boys (grade 8).

A1 and B1 both have control of the ball, and a held ball is called, official runs in blowing the whistle, niether player has let go of the ball, when A1 whips the ball around and B1 with it. The official calls an intentional technical foul.

In my opinion, an intentional foul cannot be called because there was no contact between the 2 players, however, I would be inclined to call an unsporting T or a flagerant unsporting T, depending on what happened. If I had seen the play in question, I might have a more definitive answer on that one. But for sure I would call some degree of unsporting T. Is this the proper call, or is there something else that should be called, or should we have no call??

Under NFHS and NCAA rules, a technical foul can be one of three types: 1) A TF that was neither intentional nor flagrant; 2) A TF that was intentional; or 3) A TF that was flagrant. At one time deciding whether a TF is either a (1) or a (2) was important because the penalty for a type (1) was that only one free throw was awarded instead of two free throws for types (2) or (3). Since two free throws are now awarded for all TF's, declaring whether a TF is a (1) or (2) is only to clarify to a coach that his player's actions come under the definition of an intentional foul.

I do not doubt that B1's actions were probably unsportsmanlike, but probably also fit the definition of an intentional foul, because there is no reason that an unsportsmanlike technical foul cannot be intentional.

Remember an intentional foul can be either personal or technical and all fouls that are committed while the ball is dead (excluding fouls by an airborne player) are technical fouls. B1's foul was committed while the ball was dead.

MTD, Sr.

[Edited by Mark T. DeNucci, Sr. on Jan 8th, 2005 at 11:22 PM]