2nd Horn Question
 

I had a sitch last night that I wanted to get some clarification on. Starting the 4th quarter, Team B has all five players out on the court just after the first horn sounds. My partner is already in position under the basket, so he didn't warn Team A about the first horn. Team A is still in the huddle after the second horn sounds, so I blow my whistle, bounce the ball to B and they get an easy layup. At the first stoppage of play where I am next to the coach he tells me that we have to give him a first horn warning so they know to break their huddle. I tell him that our warning is just a courtesy and that they should be ready to play at the second horn.

Was I right, or is our first horn warning not a courtesy?

You were right -- but your partner should have followed the mechanic of getting the team out of the huddle.

The mechanic is to give a first horn warning. Chances are they would not have heard your partner as they did not hear a first horn itself.

I talked with my partner about it after the game. He is a first year guy and his mechanics were a little rough. There were a few times last night where I had to figure out what he was doing as he just blew his whistle and didn't raise an arm at all. I had to wait to see if he was going to the table before I could switch with him... We talked for a long while about mechanics after the game.

Always listen to Bob.

I wish the rule was that we inbounds the ball right after we hear the second horn.

The NHL changed the rules that a face-off will happen 15 seconds after the whistle and they don't care if both teams are there or not. At the beginning, some teams complained to the refs. But when they realized that their little acting job cost them possession, they smartened up pretty quick.

It will clean up within 2 weeks of using this NHL-style mechanic.

I think that is the rule.

It's easier for the NHL to enforce this with 30 teams and 100 officials (or whatever the numbers are) than for the NFHS to enforce this with 4000 schools and 100000 officials (ditto on the numbers).