Pre-games are great and essential but they don't make us infallible. We're still going to miss something from time-to-time. But playing with 6 on the court is illegal and once it happens we have to penalize accordingly.

I don't like some of the correctable error statutes and correctable errors are, in my opinion, always the officials' fault, but we still must enforce the consequences according to the rulebook. Preventing correctable errors are always part of the pre-games but they still happen.

You have an hour and a half pre-game and it is not going to change that there will be a situation someone screws up. Even the table can make this difficult for you and not stop a potential substitution problem that can lead to 6 players on the court.

Peace

Hey, if you really feel like that, go ahead and do whatever you want to do. Ignore the rules that you don't like. It might be the last time that you ever work at that level, but that's probably best for everybody anyway.

Was watching some of my fellow officials the other evening, and this exact situation happened. It was a twenty point blow out at the time. In talking to the officials after the game they said that it was their fault and that is why the situation happened. Well during the time the team had six on the court, one of the players realized it and left the court for the bench. After she left another one left. Then when they realized they only had four one came back on from the bench. Yes we should count, but like others have said it is the coach and teams responsibility to know better. In this case a tech would have stopped all the other things from happening and not lost the credibility of the crew. Call the tech and move on. I'll bet they pay closer attention the next time.

If a player while dribbling steps on a boundary line, you blow the whistle and call him for an out of bounds violation. That's the rule.

If a free throw shooter crosses the free throw line before the ball hits the rim, you blow the whislte and call him for a free throw violation. That's the rule.

If a player dunks the ball in pregame warmup, you call a technical foul on him and an indirect on the head coach. That's the rule.

I could tell them all not to do those things. And they all know they are not supposed to do those things. But when they do, it's our place as officials when we recognize the illegal act to penalize it according to the rule. And they all know that's what we're supposed to do.

6 players from the same team participating at the same time? Duhhh..... Saddle is on target. This is NOT one of those things that requires "solomonic wisdom" concerning whether to penalize. It is a basic, objective technical infraction. Don't make it hard. Everyone knows what's supposed to happen. Just do it.

A-freakin-men! :D :D :D

Also.....A-freaking-women.

I'm now the kinder, gentler politically-correct JR. I certainly wouldn't want to disappoint Rainmaker

:o

It is forbidden to give a T for these infractions? :D

It's my new wireless keyboard. It doesn't spell as well as my old one :o

I don't like some of the correctable error statutes and correctable errors are, in my opinion, always the officials' fault, but we still must enforce the consequences according to the rulebook. Preventing correctable errors are always part of the pre-games but they still happen.[/QUOTE]

If you are counting the table crew as part of the officiating crew, then maybe I agree. But, if you mean the 3(2) persons that are calling the game, then I disagree wholeheartedly. Most of the miscommunication involved with correctable errors comes from the table.

You know, if you're going to treat the 'a' in 'amen' as a prefix, then the word should mean "non-men," just as 'amoral' means "non-moral." So isn't that already politically correct?

Of course, the ancient Hebrews who invented the word weren't very politically correct, and they didn't use many Latin prefixes either...:p

If there is miscommunication concerning team fouls and time-outs then it is (IMO) our fault as officials because we are not communicating with our table personnel enough and we are not keeping track in our heads 2 sets of numbers that I think are very easy to keep up with. (please excuse sentence-ending preposition)

And if there are 2 scorebooks (H & V) then late in games I will check to make sure they both have the same players in foul trouble (3 or more fouls).

I had a similar Tee
 

Dead ball.Player subs in. Player leaving the court is stopped by coach but stays on the court. I tell coach she has to leave the court. He replies " I'm coaching here. " I get set to administer throw-in and player still hasn't left the court. I hand ball to player for throw-in, glance over and she still hasn't left. I tweet. And do the 2 shot thing. Not the exact same SITCH but always wondered if I could have given the coach a direct for that one.......

Nice job. Point made. We had a coach in a varsity game (not my game) want a T called because the officials put the ball in play just before the player got off the court. She was hustling off, but the officials were trying to keep the game flowing. Obviously, the official didn't give the T.