Illegal Uniform Technical

[johnnyrao]

Boys JV game, first quarter. I am L on table side. Team A has a throw-in on the endline in their back court. B is pressing hard so I am up the side line close to the table. The horn sounds and the scorekeeper informs me (I go to the table since I am closest to it) that #2 on A is not in the book. I check with both books just to be sure and the court to make sure we have a #2 on the court (we do). I signal a technical foul on Team A for having a player with the wrong number in the book. After the first shot the coach of team A comes to me and says that #2 had blood on his uniform before the game and the assistant coach made him change. The coach tells me he had no idea of the shirt change and had no problem with the tech, he just wanted me to know what happened. I told him that in the future he should notify the referee if this happens and we continued on. No problems.

But, I thought about it later and here's my question. Since changing a shirt with blood on it is allowed by the rules, in all situations where you have a player in the game with a different number in the book, should you talk to the coach before assessing the T? Or is it the coach's responsibility to bring this to your attention? In this case, had I asked the coach about it first, the blood on the shirt issue may have come up then. If we could verify he did change because of the blood then we could correct this as an unmerited free throw and continue at the POI with Team A's throw-in. If you talk to the coach he says he had blood on his shirt, do you ask to see the other shirt with the proper number to verify there is blood on it? Since this game was a blowout it was not a big issue but I could see this becoming one in a close game.