Player not in Book
 

Had a situation on Friday where, in the third quarter, the visitors scorerkeeper informed me that a player had not been entered in the book. This player was not in the game at the time but had been previously (my partner remembered his number) but did not score and was not charged with any fouls. We did not assess a T because he was not in the game at the time and his name and number were not entered in the book when it was discovered. By the way he must have arrived after the start of the game as we did count players and checked this against the books during warmups.

Should a T have been assessed because my partner remembered him being in the game?

I am probably wrong, and I do not have my rule book at work with me to check, but off the top of my head I am not so sure about retro active T's.

If the player had actually been in the game before, how did the scorer track that?

I'd be tempted to say that if you were certain the player had entered the game in, say, the 2nd quarter, that you need to add the player and mark his quarter played. At that point, you are requiring a change to the scorebook, which is what the technical foul is for. It is not a retroactive "T", but rather a correction of a bookkeeping error.

However, if neither the officials nor the scorer are 100% certain he has played, then I'm not directing the book be corrected and we'll correct it later in the game if need be.

Normally, when a player is not in a book it is brought to the officials attention whether quickly. If it can't be proved if he/she is not in the book by points or a foul can't penalize off the words of visitor bookkeeper.

What was in the home book?

The same as was in the visitor book.

What is with all this home book/visitor book?? Maybe this is a topic all its own, but I just don't seem to understand this. For EVERY game I work, there is ONE BOOK -- The OFFICIAL SCOREBOOK -- and it is kept at the table. Yes, the home team may have a book being kept on their bench. Yes, the visitor book may have a book being kept on their bench as well. But for the purposes of keeping score, fouls, AP, etc., there is ONE official score book. So why would you even bother consulting something that is unofficial??

Actually it's not what's in the book, it's the team list as supplied prior to the 10 minute mark.

Exactly...and, based on my experience, that is normally the book kept on their bench. In other words, an assitant walks up and drops their scorebook on the table for the official scorer to copy into the official book. Therefore, if something in incorrect or missing, it seems perfectly acceptable to check the book on that teams bench as that is the information that was supplied. If it is correct in that book and there appears to be no tampering...I am likely to decide the official scorer simply miscopied.

Now...if there are erasures in that book where then numbers are, or if all the players are in numerical order except the player in question who appears at the bottom of the list I may question the integrity of the information. Luckily, that has never happened.