I am currently at a high school basketball tournament and attended a game where the foul calls were extremely slanted. This resulted in 5 of the 9 players on the team fouling out. I thought that if that many people fouled out, a technical was issued and 5 players were allowed to remain on the court. The refferee made the team play with 4 players. Was this the correct call according to NFHS guidelines?

Yes.

Peace

You are currently at a game, and you're .... what .... on Wi-Fi? I think you need to put your computer away and cheer for your friends. Go out after the game and have a coke and a hamburger. And let the refs worry about calling the fouls.

Its a weekend tournament and the game was earlier in the evening. There were a total of 36 team fouls called versus 6 on the other team. The refs had been calling a blocking foul if one of the girls so much as touched the player with the ball. I just wanted to make sure that that at least was the right call.

You're thinking of NBA rules, Adam. In the NBA, a team must always have 5 players on the court. This is not true in HS. The officials in your game administered it correctly.

As for the calls being slanted, it only seems that way to you because you had a rooting interest. The refs don't have a rooting interest. In the future, you probably shouldn't go into a forum designed for a certain avocation and tell people there that others in the avocation sucked.

The team that is hosting the tournament chose which specific refs to bring in and apparently all of the games against the host team have been won by the home team, in many cases, due to foul trouble. There is a general animosity towards the host team from all of the other teams because it very much appears that across the board the refs have a bias towards the home team. I'm not trying to put down anyone I just want to see a fair game called.

I thought the object of the game was to score more than the other team. Since when did officials make shots? :rolleyes:

Peace

Sheez, Jeff. How naive!

Officials don't make shots but they can grant extra opportunities for shots.

You mean the team with the least fouls wins? Well I guess the team I had tonight was in denial. They have many more fouls and won the game by 34.

Brother Rice <b>81</b>, McNamara <b>47</b>

Man, I guess the home team did not know what to do when they fouled like 17 times to the visiting teams 6 in the second half alone. I guess we stopped all the 3 pointers from going in.

Peace

Adam, this is a board for referees. You're not going to get a lot of sympathy. I suggest you find a blog-site for fans and have some conversation with fellow-travelers. You might even meet a cute girl!

Adam: first of all, what was the final score of the game(s) you have questioned the officiating on? Please be honest.

Second, while officials make mistakes and have bad games, its very doubtful that there was an attempt, organized or not, to favor one team or school over another. I have officiated a very high number of basketball games, fewer football games, and fewer still games of other sports ranging from volleyball to softball, to intramural sports in college. I've worked with many poor officials, but I can't remember one time where I felt my co-official(s) was/were being anything other than unbiased in their calls. I think the experience of the posters on this board back that up completely. I'll conceed that on very rare occassions, there MAY (and I emphasize MAY as I don't have any proof of this) have been a "make-up" call or a call is made by an official who's gotten angry at a coach or player who's berated them. But this still falls into the category of "poor officiating" as its unprofessional and not into the category of bias.

I encourage you to grab a whistle and striped shirt and join us sometime. See what we do and you'll find out that about 98% of what people think of officials and officiating is 100% wrong.

As I think back over the 40+ games I've officiated so far this season, I can honestly say that most of the time it was the team that was the most aggressive that committed the most fouls - more often than not it was also the most aggressive team that won. The exceptions were teams that had very poor skills or were making numerous stupid fouls out of frustration.

I've been either playing, coaching or officiating basketball for over 40 years, and in all that time I can't recall seeing even one game with deliberate bias by the officials such as you allude to. Poor officiating, yes, but deliberate bias - never.

The final was 62-56. I didn't at all intend to blast the refs here. I just came on to find out about the foul out call and let my temper get a hold of me. I ref intramural college ball and we use NCAA rules so I just wanted to see what the right call was, and it was the one that was made. I fully understand how rough it is to ref. The teams that I call for are just a bunch of guys who are used to playing street ball and don't quite get that you can't plow into people on the court. I'm sorry if I offended anyone and I thank all of you for answering my question.

Can I assume that the original poster has a bias toward one team?