New Situation
 

I was working a 9th grade game with a new official last night. He calls a foul and reports to the table, but instead of giving the player number for who committed the fuoul, he gives the player number for who was fouled. Well, a minute later the dreaded horn sounds. He talks to the table and then comes to me, he doesn't know/remember who comitted the foul, neither do I.

How do we handle?

Well, one thing you could do is ask the table if they saw. Hopefully they were paying close enough attention.

They are part of the officiating crew, after all.

Tell the star player you are charging the foul to him/her. He/she will let you know who actually committed the foul. :D

You actually might be onto something there.

An older, very successful college crew gave me this tidbit of knowledge last year if there is a question about who the foul was on:

1. Ask your partner(s)
2. Ask the table if they have information
3. Still nothing, get the captains together and figure it out
(Run out of the gym if you haven't already)
4. Plead for mercy from the coaches and ask for their help
(Find a new hobby)

They said they never want to go past 2 but if it's absolutely necessary, go further.

-Josh

I done that! "Who fouled?" Blank stares "OK, 34 red" Wait, it was him!:D"

Don't Even Ask About Double Fouls ...
 

That's why, as the calling official, I only remember the fouler. In pregame I tell my partner that I expect him, or her, to pick up my foulee, in case we're going to shoot free throws. Hey, we all have our limits. I have mine, and that's one way that I deal with them.

That's well and good until you call an off-ball foul where your partners have no idea what you called until you tell them. If you don't get the shooter yourself there, who will?

Somewhere I can't recall where, the last resort, if not clear who the foul was on was to just chalk up one more team foul and forget about crediting the foul to any one individual. Am I right?

I have BillyMac's problem (well, ok, maybe only this particular one...:)) where if I verbalize a number, more than likey that's going to be the number I verbalize at the table due to short-term memory. In an off-ball situation, or even in the middle of a gaggle of players, where I'm not sure if my partners can pick out the shooter, I will point at that player and tell them, "There's my shooter", while still verbalizing the number of the player who fouled.

I verbalize it, when needed, as "Blue 12 fouled 53".

I've actually done that too.

I know in the beginning it was hard for my (somewhat) meager brain to process so many things at once, and I found myself reporting the last number I spoke out loud, which was usually who got fouled. As I've gained experience, it has become easier to process more than one thing at once. (But I still don't chew gum while I officiate...)

If the problem is only remembering the last number verbalized then change the statement to "53 fouled by blue 12".

The problem with that is in a lot of instances players, coaches and fans only hear the first thing said, and react based on that. It is that same reason an official shouldn't say "Off blue, white ball" on an OOB call. Perhaps in a quiet gym this would not be an issue, but when there's any noise level at all, usually players and coaches only hear the first color and/or number verbalized.

If you saw this "somewhere", it was probably on a coach/parent discussion board, right under the discussions about reaches and over the backs. You must assign the foul to a player if you called a foul on a player.