"Mistaken" Technical
 

I had a middle school game last night, small gym. I'm on the trail almost at half court in front of the home bench. Out of the corner of my eye I see the assistant coach stand up and hear him yell very loudly, "Can't you call a walk!" I turned and whacked him with a "T". He immediately says that he didn't say anything, although he did stand up. Turns out it was a parent sitting directly behind him that had yelled. I let the "T" stand (fortunately it was not a close game). He kept a good attitude and we talked about it afterwards. I apologized for the case of mistaken identity and told him his fan had caused him a "T". Should I have handled it differently?

1) An Assistant standing is an automatic T
2) His stantment (in error) would deserve a warning or ignore by me

You win on point 1.

Unless the assistant commits a "gotta have" T offense, I would think about letting the head coach have the first crack at handling him. I've had good success with quietly telling the head coach, "I can't have your assistant going off at us like that."

In your case, it would have saved you an erroneous T. And if you can get the head coach to deal with his assistant, that's one less person you have to deal with. And if you end up whacking him, there's not a lot the head coach can say about it. You gave him a chance to do it himself.

My booking agent said I should have taken back the "T" once I realized my error. What would you have done?

I think there should not be a problem to correct your mistake by the first dead ball after the clock had started.

MajorCord,
Welcome to the forum.

Having already made the call, I wouldn't have taken back the "T".
Assistant coach earned it.
There was no reason to apolgize for the mistaken identity unless it was the fan who was "standing up". ;)
Nice apology, though.
mick

This isn't a Correctable Error, so the time frame you mentioned isn't relevant.

Either rescind the T immediately (it becomes an inadvertant whistle), or let it stand.

Seeing something out of the corner of your eye is not seeing the play or good game management.

It was not an accidental whistle.

By your definition... let it stand.

Re:
 

Not true. Say an AC wants to stand to fix his pants. You gunna T that. Say he wants to take a group of players to the other end of the bench to talk, and needs to walk there. You gunna call that? Say he needs to leave the gym to use the restroom. You gunna T that?

I would have rescinded the T. Keeping it is being over-officious.

I knew for sure it was him that stood up. I thought it was him that shouted, but as it turns out, it was a parent sitting directly behind him. The voices sounded just alike. By the way, in the interest of game management, I did go to my partner (veteran official - this is my third year)and asked him if he heard the assistant say anything. He was inconclusive, but he told me the call was a good one and to let it stand. Next time, I will "see and hear" directly.

Why was it not an accidental whistle?

I don't have the FED books with me, but:

NCAA 4-37 Inadvertant Whistle -- An inadvertant whistle occurs anytime an official blows the whistle as an oversight and does not have a call to make.

Sounds like you T'd him for the "comment" he didn't make and then considered him standing after you realized he didn't make the comment. If you T'd him for standing up, then stick with it but consider letting the coach have the first shot. If you T'd him for the supposed comment, then swallow the whistle, recind the call and learn from it.

I don't know if this is a mitigating circumstance, but I wonder if the assistant stood up right around the time the travel violation wasn't called (correctly I assume) and the "parent/fan" took the cue and howled out his comment from the stands. Assuming this is an isolated incident and by keeping the call as it was, maybe both the coach and the fan learned something the hard way, correct call or no correct call. In the less attended games around here, the area behind the coaches bench is cleared at least several rows up, probably for good measure. ;)

Was the original game situation referring to NCAA rules?

If so, you may be correct.

IMO per NFHS Rule 2-10 or with Case 7.5.4, the whistle was blown with intent on calling a technical and not by accident.

I would either rescind the call in error within my allowable time-frame or let it stand and live with my mistake.