Not a big deal but, I thought it was inappropriate and needed to be dealt with, even though I do believe the last two minutes had been helter skelter with several calls that could be questionable on tape, two of three by me. Here is the text that I am sending in, on my "unusual situation report". If approved by all of you by 10:00 a.m. tomorrow, of course, I wouldn't dare send it without your opinions. Thanks, Devon.

While at trail official, working a two-person crew, my partner, at lead, partner,
called a pushing foul on a team B player. As I froze, I observed Coach _________ (going to call school in a.m to get that info, not sure of her last name)
clapping, making me think she believed the call had gone against Team A. When my
partner gave me the shooter and reported the foul, the coach realized the call was not
going her way, and she was upset, as it was a close game with less than one minute
remaining in the game. As my partner was preparing to administer the one and one free
throws, I heard three comments from the coach, the last I felt was inappropriate. She said
“that’s on us?”, “how is that on us?”, then as my partner bounced the ball to the shooter,
the coach said, while kneeling in front of the bench, “you guys suck”. I blew a short blast
to stop the free throw, called and reported a technical foul, informed the players to vacate
the lane, conferred with my partner that we would shoot a one and one with the lane
cleared, then shoot two shots for the technical foul. I went to the midcourt line opposite
the table to avoid further conflict with the coach. After shooting the first free throw, I
observed the Team B players, coach, and substitutes, huddling in front of the bench in the
area they would have been during a 30-second timeout. They were clapping in unison, I
believed, at the very least, to be disconcerting to the shooter. I gave a short blast of the
whistle, approached the bench area, told their players to go to the midcourt line and told
the coach to sit down. The game ended with no further incident.

To summarize, there was no problem with the coach, in my opinion, before or after the
described incident. I believe it was simply an inappropriate comment by a frustrated
coach, nothing more.

[Edited by devdog69 on Dec 7th, 2001 at 10:55 AM]

sounds legit. you have to file a report for singled out techs? lucky us we only report ejections!

yes, we have to file "unusual situation reports" good or bad, which is ok as I file as many good as bad.

Starting this year, my association requires us to report (to the assignor) all technicals. We have always been required to report ejections -- player sits out 1 game and if it is the coach, can be 2 games. We are also report unusual situations.

dblref
 

Just curious...

Why did the association opt to have "Ts" reported? Was it to reign in "T" happy officials?

move players to division line
 

Why did you move the players to the division line while the free throws were being shot?

All that is required of players during a free throw with the lane cleared is to be outside the arc, behind the free throw line extended. Plus, if there was only one minute left in the game, the activity that you considered to be possible disconcertion was occurring in the back court.

I do not have a problem with you seating the coach, since the seatbelt rule would have kicked in because of the T.

I did think that they had to be at halfcourt, but of course, there is nothing I can find in the rulebook to say that definitely. They were in the backcourt and I probably wouldn't have said anything if they hadn't been doing an organized cheer that seemed disconcerting to me. So, Bigwhistle, is it ok to let one team stand near the bench and talk to the coach during the shots if they are in the backcourt, even though the other team would be restricted from this because the shots are occurring near their bench? Just asking. Devon.

What happens if you call lots of Ts? Not unusual anymore? Do you still have to report them?;)

I have also wondered in the past about the definition of "disconcert the free thrower." Most refs limit this to what goes on along the lane. As an example along the same lines as Devon's, we have a team that consistently begins clapping and stomping immediately prior to the release of the FT by the shooter. If fans do it, you clearly cannot penalize this conduct. But this is clearly organized, done by players not fans, and has caused more than one shooter to visibly flinch (and miss of course). Doesn't this fall under the rule, since both the intent and the result are disconcertion?

[Edited by Hawks Coach on Dec 7th, 2001 at 10:09 AM]

9-1-5 ...No opponent shall disconcert the free thrower.

I called it last night on a girl behind the shooter. She would walk up behind the shooter and stand, innocently enough, but then as the shooter would start her motion she would squeak her shoes on the floor. After it happened three or four times it was obvious it was intentional. I called it once, it was over no biggie, did consider that I probably could have just said "hey don't do that" and it would have stopped too.

HAWKS COACH
 

DISCONCERTATION in my view is anything done, by the players on the court and/OR bench personnel, to intentionally distract "break the concentration of" the FT Shooter. That is not authorized in the rules. Calling a Time-out is a "legal way" to "ice" (Disconcert) the shooter.

As mentioned earlier, I would "officially" address the inappropriate disconcertation and then "T" it as unsportsmanlike conduct if it continued.

There is nothing wrong with either team standing near its' bench during the free throws with cleared lane. If you think about it, they will be under the coach's direct supervision getting instructions more times than not. The team in the court where the ball is being shot should still be able to be near their coach, just above the free throw line extended. All coaching boxes should be in a spot above this line.

Ok, bigwhistle I will change the way I administer this situation from now on. I will still put a stop to the little chant (that's the word I've been looking for) that they were doing.

Stopping the chant is just good preventative officiating!!

Does this include administrative technicals, and second delay of game warning technicals, etc.? Man - that would be a lot of paperwork.