Great Game - "Odd" Calls
 

I just got home from officiating a great boys varsity game tonight. Big crowd. Loud cheerleaders representing both teams. Two very good teams. Great partner. Good table officials. Challenging but respectful coaches. Players that just wanted to play and didn't whine about calls. What was "odd" about the game was we had some real "weird" calls:

1) Two teamates collide on an throw in play. Head to head contact. Both removed from the game due to blood. After being bandaged, one had to be removed a second time due to continued bleeding. I've only had one player removed from a high school game due to blood since the rule first first came into effect. My partner never had one. Tonight we had two.

2) My partner called a violation for an offensive player deliberately going out of bounds to gain an advantage. I've never called this violation. This was a first for my partner.

3) I called a violation for excessivly swinging elbows (no contact). I used to call this a few times a season many years ago when it was only a violation. When the penalty changed to a technical foul, I never called it, because I thought the penalty was too severe. Since it has changed back to a violation, I hadn't called it until tonight.

4) I called an intentional foul for a defensive player grabbing opponent #12's jersey. No big deal until #12 makes his foul shots, at which point the scorekeeper, as well as the visiting scorekeeper, inform me that there is no #12 in either book. Team technical foul. Two technical foul shots and the ball for the team that originally committed the intentional foul.

I've never had so many "odd" calls in a high school game before. Just thought I'd share my experience with the Forum.

Yep, this was a weird one. Does CT still use a 2 whistle crew for V boys games?

I'd like to add my own weird call.

Varsity boys, tournament semi-final, nearly 19 minutes remaining in the first half:

I'm lead when team A shoots a long jumper. In the key, A5 and B5 bump as they seek rebound position; they bump again (no advantage); shot is good. The score is now 2-0. B5 grabs the ball and starts a quick break. As the ball nears half-court, A5 and B5 simultaneously (yes, at the same time) grab each other by the throat, first whistle of the game. It was my first, hopefully my last, double flagrant. Both players DQ'd with no further problems. Coach B, lectures his player from the bench to the hall about selfishness. Coach A wants to know why I didn't give the players a warning, rather than an automatic DQ. I remind him that fighting is an automatic DQ, no warning. He quietly suggests that a warning would suffice. I gently provide him with that warning and inform my partner who's now choking on his whistle in an attempt to suppress his smile.

The rest of the game was competitive (three point game), but we called another 64 fouls and three more players from each team fouled out.

My partner was still smiling at the end of the game, as was I.

A5 and B5 must have had some history. Probably fighting over a girl.

Where do you play HS tournaments that consist of halves in excess of 19 minutes? WOW...and I thought Minnesota was bad with our 18 minute halves.:confused:

Good question. That's a college length half.

I asume the answer is yes, but want to make sure. The free throws by No. 12 do count?

And two halves in high school ball. Have never even heard of that????

Yes, the FT's count.

That's unusual. Around here, the cheerleaders represent one team or the other (and there are some competitive cheer squads that do not represent any team), but not both.

I have never done a game that didn't have two halves. Same in football. Every pizza I've ever ordered has had two halves. Same with apples and oranges - I have two halves. Then I compare them. Doesn't everything have two halves???

Come to think of it, the only time I dealt with one half was when I once dug half a hole.

I'm in Alberta. We use NCAA rules and NFHS mechanics for high school, until next year (back to FIBA).

I had one not long ago - one of those classic case book situations you don't see all that often.

Freshman boys game, I'm the trail. A1 launches a high looping shot from just inside the arc, clearly returns to the floor, is then fouled by B1 before shot goes in. I had the whole sequence clearly & there was absolutely no question on the timing. I blow the whistle, count the basket, common foul on B1, and since they're not yet in the penalty ball OOB to A. I figured on having to explain it to the coaches, but was a little surprised I had to explain it to my partner...........

This season, X-mas Tourney, BV:

A is winning by 5-6 points. Beginning of 4th, absolutely no pressure by Team B. A1 inbounds to A2 in the b/c inside the circle. A2 holds for a couple seconds then passes back to A1 who is in the backcourt. A1 holds for a few seconds while A2 is yelling out instructions to set up a play. A1 passes back to A2 who hasn't moved. While holding the ball A2 starts doing hand jestures to his teammates who apparently still have gotten into the correct offensive set. My counts gets to '9' and I look back at the clock and it's already down to 7:49. I get to '10' and I immediately blow the 10-second violation.

So I had a 10-second violation b/c 2 players sat and passed the ball back and forth for 10 seconds (apparently 12 seconds, in fact) while less that 3-feet from the division line.

What level ball was that? I mean, what level was it supposedly?

It was Boys Varsity. Large (but average talent) private school vs. AAA (largest public classification) school that usually finishes at the bottom of its conference. Just a combination of overly conservative coaching by the private school which I don't think expected to be winning and a brain-fart by the 2 players.

It was a very good game in fact.

MN plays 2 halves, not 4 quarters
 

In Minnesota H.S. basketball we switched last year to two 18 minute halves instead of four eight minute quarters. The thinking at the time was it would create additional opportunities for bench players due to the need to rest the starters more as they wouldn't have the quarter breaks. Based on what I've seen, I can't attest to this being the case.

We also have approved video review for our state tournaments.

Boys JV last second shot, no foul, time runs out as ball bounces off floor and goes in. We don't count the shot team loses by one.

:D Can I nominate this for post-of-the-month or something?

How about post-of-the-half-month?

You could, but I think Old School has quite a few posts that would beat it out.

Has anybody ever seen Old School and Juggling Referee in the same room?:confused:

Off the subject, I've always wondered the same thing about Michael and LaToya.

That's funny.:) :)

Classic.

Yes, s/he is good. But it was an honour to be in the same sentence as s/he. Now let me log off and log back in. ;) (With apologies to OS.)

These games happen from time to time. Enjoy them!

This frustrates me! Do others in your local choose what rules to enforce? How do you communicate to the coaches which rules you'll not use in the game at hand?

False double, right?

JV girls this afternoon; A1 on a throw-in following a made basket. Starts to throw and sees defense in way and tries to pull back. Ball comes loose and bounces on the court, and she steps out and grabs it. Not sure why, but I'd never had this violation before.
Next game, opening tip (JV boys). Black tips the ball towards the sideline, and it grazes off of white before heading OOB. No possession prior to the violation. Don't seem to get that often, either.

I almost forgot to add. I had two fouls called off because of violations my partner called that happened just prior to me blowing the whistle. One was a push through a screen that I blew right after he blew a travel up top. The other was on a rebound where H23 came crashing in, but the ball went OOB just before he plowed through an opponent.

Reply To JugglingReferee
 

From BillyMac's original post:
"I called a violation for excessivly swinging elbows (no contact). I used to call this a few times a season many years ago when it was only a violation. When the penalty changed to a technical foul, I never called it, because I thought the penalty was too severe. Since it has changed back to a violation, I hadn't called it until tonight."

From Juggling Referee's Reply:
"This frustrates me! Do others in your local choose what rules to enforce? How do you communicate to the coaches which rules you'll not use in the game at hand?"

Reply to JugglingReferee:
In general, I would agree with your statement that individual or local interpretations frustrate you and me both, but in this specific case, it appears that a lot of officials, nationwide, were not calling this technical foul. According to the 2002-03 NFHS Rule Book, page 4, Comments on the Rules Revisions: The penalty for excessive swinging of the elbows was changed back to a violation from a technical foul. The previous rule of a technical foul (changed in 1993-94) was very seldom called, as the penalty was very severe, without contact with an opponent. The committee hoped that by changing this infraction back to an enforceable and less severe penalty (a violation), that the call would be made more frequently and will acheived the desired result of reducing the potential of rough play.

I did a game once with half a partner . . . don't really want to repeat that.

I had a similar sitch in a BV game last week. Team A makes a basket. B1 throws in to B2 who is standing near the free throw line (no pressure from team A...all 5 were heading down court). Unfortunately for B1 he only tossed the ball about 2 feet onto the court and B1 made no effort to come back and get it, so as B1 ran on court he tapped the ball to B2. Tweet...come on back boys.