A myriad of sitchs

[JugglingReferee]

Hello,

I officiated some games on the weekend in a large tournament. I did ages 12 and 13. Here are some situations.

1. Blow It Dead Now or Later?
This particular game both teams were fast breaking quite a bit and the pace was amazing! I love these games because I feel it tests my VO2(max).

So I'm L, table side, P is T opposite. We're in a half-court set, and the T is just getting into position. A1 shoots from beyond the arc. 3-point attempt from my P. It goes in. He signals good. Now, the way I do it is that on almost every 3-point shot, if I can and the game dictates, I take a quick look if the attempt is not from my AOR. (If it's in my AOR, naturally I always have an opinion.) So I see A1 with his toes on the arc. I decided to not blow it dead and deal with it at the next stoppage in play. Why? B quickly grabs the ball and starts up floor again - inline with the pace of the game. Fortunately, that was 30 seconds later at the other end of the court where a shooting foul was called.

Is your contention that it should be corrected right away? Would you wait at all, like I did? What if 2 minutes of game time goes by without a whistle?

I confered with my P and he said that he did not get a good look at it, and that it very much could have been a two. I said that I had the shooter on the line. He was fine with me changing the call. Naturally, I took some slack from the coach that just lost a point. Some fans were upset as well. The coach said things like, "You can't do that." "That was his call - you can't overrule him." My replies were that I "...confered with my partner and with all information, we got the call right," and "Coach, we are allowed to change this type of call."

2. Very Successful Screen
I was telling an officiating friend, who's opinion I respect alot, about a this stich. He says he could have had a foul. I guess it'd be a charge he would call.

A1 is dribbling up the court with a defender keep up step for step. Both are keeping a decent pace. I'm L, and in transition. I see A2 setting would could become a screen if A1 uses it. A1 does. A2 is set up like 5-6 steps before the impending contact with B1. I see it coming and watch carefully for any illegal activity. I see none. My P and I confer and exchange view because A2 ends up going down because of the contact, and we whistled the play dead as A2 was down. Fans are yelling. ***'t coach comes out to attend to his player. (He is also a quality official.) Neither of us had a foul.

I know this is a had to be there play, but I'm not sure that I've had to ever call a foul for contact that wasn't just a part of the game where a screen was involved. No arms, elbows or shoulders were extended or otherwise. The level of contact was more than usual because B1 was moving quickly to keep up with A1.

Should a foul be called? Is there line that exists where we call a foul? Do we call a foul to protect the player, even though the screened player did nothing wrong per se? What are your thoughts? Incidentally, the ***'t coach, who I actually officiated with in the provincial finals 6 years ago, addressed the parents of his team and said the contact was legal. I appreciated that very much. Perhaps because we didn't have a foul.

I might think of more that are of.com worthy at a later time.