Sweet Sixteen

[Oz Referee]

Originally posted by irunlikeagirl
I sure hope you cancelled the basket, under FIBA rules you can't score a basket with a dead ball unless expressly stated otherwise (eg. the ball becomes live when in the hands of the free throw shooter).

The rules are there to provide guidelines as to how the game should be conducted, not to deflect blame away from the stupidity of the scoretable, so unfortunately I see this as the correct scenario to resume the game.

Basket is cancelled, Team A is awarded a throw in at the point nearest to the position of the ball when the error was detected, full shot clock with no amendment to the game clock.

OK, I agree, you can't score with a dead ball. However, as we understood it at the time (and I still do), it is the referee that makes the ball live, not the starting of the game clock.

So, we awarded the basket, left the time on the clock as it stood due to the fact that we were not completely confident that the shot clock had started on time. Our basic reasoning for awarding the points was that as neither coach, nor any of the players or fans, had made any comments about the clock not running, then it was safe to assume that the defense had not been disadvantaged. Therefore it would have been unfair to penalise the offence for a clerical error.

Our decision was backed by both my evaluator, and several other officials at the game. Even the coach of Team B agreed with our ruling once we explain the reasoning behind it (although he would still have prefered us to cancel the bucket)