Correctable Error

[johnnyrao]

Okay, I have to start avoiding summer tournaments because, once again, I was part of a crew that made a pretty big error today. Anyway, my question deals with the timing of correcting a correctable error. We were working three person mechanics. Game tied 46-46 with less than a minute left. I was trail and the lead and I had a double whistle when A1 drove to the basket and attempted a lay up (the foul was in the dual coverage area of the court). I yielded to my partner and he called the foul. He is a relatively new official and did not tell us or signal exactly what he was calling (no criticism here, just the facts). My other partner and I lined up everyone to shoot the free throws. A1 hit the free throw (we have a running clock and shoot one free throw to make two points) and Team B inbounded the ball. Team A now leads 48-46. B1 gets fouled and hits the free throw to tie the game 48-48. Team A calls a TO and one of our trainers comes on the court and tells us we blew the Team A free throw because they were not yet in the bonus. My partner and I both said the shooter was in the act of shooting. Our other partner (who called the foul) said no, the foul occured prior to the shot so it should have been an inbound and no free throws. Uh Oh! We decided that at that time it was too late to correct it. Neither coach was even aware of what happened. I can honestly say that if I had not yielded to my partner on the original foul I would have said she was shooting and we have had a free throw so I wasn't even thinking about it.

Anyway, back to the original question. I think we would have been able to correct it if the error was discovered prior to giving the ball to B1 for her free throw. If I have it right, A1 made the free throw, Team B inbounded the ball and the clock starts, we call a foul on B1 making the ball dead. So, as long as we correct it prior to the lead administering the free throw to B1 we can correct it.

Once again, I am VERY glad this happened in July and not in a big game in January. It would not be fun to tell the coaches and scorers to take 2 points off the board in a tie game with about 15 seconds left.

Lastly, I still think A1 was in the act of shooting. Is it the call of the referee who actually makes the foul call to decide this? If we came together to discuss the correctable error, can the R decide that she was shooting and thus was shooting merited free throws? Or is it up to the calling official? In this case two of us thought she was shooting, one didn't, we did it wrong, and could have paid pretty severely for it. In this case everything went okay in the end and we all learned some things.