This happened in a first round sub-state game. The lead official gives a very short blast on his whistle. It was obvious to me that it was inadvertent. IMO he anticipated a foul that did not occur. 'A' team scored the basket, B1 gets the ball to toss it to the lead official who just shakes his head "no" and points to put the ball into play.

Does an inadvertent whistle merit a dead ball situation? Or since team 'B' was taking the ball out of bounds anyway, was this a correct call?

By the book it is a dead ball. Are there sub's waiting to enter the game? Did the defense take off down the court? If there are no sub's and no defense trying to set up, I agree with the action. Just get the game going. What will be the benefit of stopping the clock for 2 seconds (or less) and then maybe having to explain why the clock stopped? If it is late in the game and the score is close, then the defense will be there and you have to follow the book.

You can't ignore the whistle. You tell the kids to play the whistle. Why? So that when they hear it, they will STOP what they're doing. Usually, this keeps a physical situation from escalating. But if we tell them to play the whistle, then we have to expect that they will do so. If the defense stops playing at the whistle, then that's an unfair advantage for the offense.

Since the whistle blew before the ball went in the basket, you have 2 choices:

1) If the ball is still in the shooter's hand, then waive off the basket and award the ball back to the offense (since they had control at the time of the whistle).

2) If the ball has been released, then it's good if it goes and endline throw-in for B; if the shot does not go in then award the ball according to the AP.

You cannot ignore an official's whistle. Figure out when it happened and then decide where the ball was when it blew.

Chuck

When did the whistle happen?

If it was while the ball was still in A1's hand(s), then (by rule) the ball became dead on the whistle. No basket and give the ball back to A.

If it was after the ball left A1's hands, then count the basket and give the ball to B (whether the whistle came before or after the basket).

I saw this happen during girls regional in La a number of years ago. I traveled with these three big time college and state tourney level officials to watch them nail the game. There was an inadvertent whistle and the players paused. This gave the ball handler an open lane for a lay-up. All three officials made eye contact but they never called the ball dead. The guy who we thought had whistled told us at half time that it came from the crowd. They continued with a no call and the basket counted. It did not become a factor at the end of the game. I think they blew it.

If the whistle did come from the crowd, they should have immediately stopped the game. It was obvious (to me) that it did affect play. The technical to the home team may be an option here. If it was a ref's inadvertent whistle as we thought, there should have been an immediate second whistle to stop play with subsequent throw-in to make the ball live again.

I think ChuckElias is correct in the way to handle this situation.

The whistle came after the shot. The lead even made a gesture like he was going to raise his fist for the foul, but then quickly lowered it. Like I said, I believe he anticipated the foul which never occurred. I was there to watch the officials that night to try and learn from them (which I did, they did a great job). The game was a given from the outset.

Isn't it great to have a job where you can "Whistle While You Work"?

Just call me Grumpy.

OK, OK - I know the "Dopey" jokes are going to come now.

I had an inadvertent whistle tonight that I would have given anything to have been able to suck the sound back into the whistle.

The Visitors have the ball and are down by six points with less than forty seconds left in the game. We are a two man crew and I am Trail on the table side, right in front of Head Coach, Visitors. I am anticipating a timeout request by the Visitors if they score, which they do (score that is). Head Coach Visitors puts his hands up in a diamond shape that looks somewhat like the timeout signal and starts to shout diamond (the press he wants his team to use), but because my earing is as good as my eye sight and the crowd was really rocking, his diamond sounded like the start of timeout. You guessed it I put air in the whistle for a timeout for the Visitors.

As soon as I put air in the whistle, I knew I had blown (both the whistle and the call). We got the ball back into play immediately after I told both coaches that I had just made a very embarassing mistake.

Bob - even if the shooter had begun the continuous motion that normally leads to a shot? Tough sell here.

What is IMO??????

Two things...
Mark, I have never seen you but I would never have taken you for an "ear ring" type of guy. Which ear? Discerning fans want to know! ;)

Second, I have had several times I wanted to recall the sound from a whistle. If that's the worst you can do, YOU ARE THE MAN!

twh

IMO=In my opinion
IMHO=In my humble opinion
IMFO=In my humble opinion

Continuous motion applies only when there is a foul by the defense. It doesn't apply on an inadvertant whistle.