Right or Wrong? Technical or not?
 

This happened a game I had last week:

Team A is ahead by 4 points with thirty seconds to go.

A1 is fouled. I report the foul and Team A calls timeout.

Out of the timeout, I am tableside and notice the Lead is about to administor the 1st FT and A2 is at the line. I immediatley blow my whistle and point to A1 as the shooter, not A2.

At this time, A1 - without hesitation walks to the line and A2 - also without hesitation walks to the his spot on the lane. I even thought I saw a smirk out of Team A coach. Nothing else was said, because I caught it before my partner even bounced the ball to the shooter.

Should this be a technical? Or just play on? I really thought the coach was in on it and was a designed act.

By the way, A1 made both shots and they won the game by 5 points.

I've seen the same thing. That's a difficult situation to assess a T in. A few years back, we had a coach that we knew was doing it. In pre-game, we vowed to stay on top of it. If he tried it twice, he was stuck. He tried it once, we caught it, and he didn't try it again.

My question is: Is this a rule of any sort. I thought I had remembered a game in NCAA Div. I men's basketball where a team did this and it was an automatic "T" ... I could be mistaken.

This is certainly not very sportsmanlike ... that's for sure.

Just curious if anyone has had this or knows an exact answer.

01-7-f: A player shall not commit an unsporting foul .....such as.....knowingly attempting a free throw.....to which the player was not entitled.



Key word seems to be the one in red. As in other cases, it is difficult to judge intent.

Here's the NCAA ruling:

Is "going to the line" considered "attempting a free throw"? The wording would suggest it isn't.

FIBA has decided that, in any case, free throws attempted by the wrong player must be nullified and the ball given to the non offending team (of course if the error is discovered in the time frame for a correctable error). But if the error is detected before the ball is live for the first free throw, we simply send the right player to the line.

I think this is better, in order to avoid tricks: as already observed, it is difficult to judge intent and penalize unsporting behavior with a T. This rule requires more care from officials in situations that can raise doubts: unsportsmanlike (i.e., intentional) or technical fouls, for example.

Ciao

Thats why, whenever there is a timeout before free throws, I always say "## is my shooter."

I wouldn't call that T. You got the problem fixed before anything bad happened.

Agreed. Probably not calling it, but I might have a shorter fuse for future unsporting acts and behavior in that game. Not sure yet. If I felt the coach had been pushing the envelope all game, I might let him try the first and then call the T. Let it play itself out, so to speak.

Nah, on second thought, I do what they did here.

Or take it a step further, " #21 - you're on the line when we get back" or something similar directly to the player.

It's a simple reality in two whistle coverage that if the non-calling official is doing their job right, there's a reasonable chance that they might not know who the shooter is. A simple solution is for the calling official to give their preliminary "white foul, block, 2 shots", then make quick eye contact with their partner (who should be looking at them at this point) and simply point to the shooter. While calling official is moving to position to report foul to the table, the non-calling official can say to players "let's line up, #23 red you're at the line". which can easily be done while still freezing the floor. At this point, if a subsequent time out is then granted, both officials and the shooter know who is supposed to be at the line.

I also let my partners and the player know he/she is shooting when they break the huddle at the end of the time-out!