Lining Up Incorrectly on a FT
 

A1 shooting first of a one-and-one.

A2 lines up in the bottom spot. B2 lines up next to him. Obviously B2 should have been in the bottom spot and A2 should have been in the next slot.

Administering official doesn't notice it until A1 shoots the FT. Blows whistle - calls double violation.

Correct way to handle it?

Is it the officials responsibilty to make sure the players are lined up correctly? I said it was but I was told that its ultimately the responsibility of the players.

Double violation. Officials job is to enfore it. 99% of the time we catch it early and fix it. But if we miss it then it is ultimately the players' responsibility.

If noticed before ball is at disposal of thrower -- fix it.

If noticed before FT ends -- double violation.

If noticed after FT ends -- too late to penalize.

I agree with the gentleman above. It's something, as officials, we try to prevent but ultimately it is not our responsibility to babysit every single little thing the players should already know.

-Josh

Most Embarassing Moment?
I just had a game, blue v. white. I'm administering 2 free-throws, kid in the top spot on the lane has to re-tie his ankle brace. I am looking right at him, waiting patiently.... All done, give ball to thrower... he makes the first.

"One!".... thrower has ball at disposal.... my player with the ankle brace backs out of his spot! ... wait, he's on the shooter's team! Partner blows violation, I take the ball for endline spot throw-in.... and have a good personal brain-wracking about whether I can take that last point off of the board. Puzzled for a few seconds... then off we go.

I would disagree with you here, I feel it is our responsiblity to make sure we get the right team in the first spot on a FT, the lead should have this as their primary duty before administering the FT, the other 2 (or 1) officials also need to take a look.

Then explain why it's a violation? Same deal as 6 on the court. Do what you can, but it's still on the teams to follow the rules.

Otherwise, it would be like shooting at the right basket and you would just correct it and play on without any penalties.

This is no different than having 6 players. Of course the officials will say something if they notice but the it is the teams' responsibility to get it correct.

I am not saying that mistakes won't be made but I don't agree with saying it is not our responsibility. I also would put the burden on the crew to make sure we only have 5 players on the coach for each team...slow down. There are times when a 6th player will just run in from the scorers table or the bench but for the most part we can make sure we only have 10 players on the court.

You have 2 or 3 officials on the game...we can't count to 5 (twice) to make sure we don't have 6 players from one team? Are we in that much of a hurry? It takes an extra 5 seconds to count the teams and takes a couple of minutes to take care of administering the technical foul for 6 on the court.

Of course we can, and of course we should. But, sometime s*** happens. If it didn't there wouldn't be a rule for it.

That's correct. NFHS casebook play 9.1.2 Situation B says exactly that.