Partner told me this today
 

Worked some MS spring league games this morning with an experienced guy. He told me that last week he was working with a second year guy. Here's what happened in one of their spring league JV games.

Team A scores and puts on a full court press. B1 inbounds to B2 and team B is having a hard time getting the ball across midcourt. All of a sudden, his partner blows his whistle and calls a three second violation on A1. Yes - A1. He was standing in what was his frontcourt lane but, of course, his team didn't have the ball.

My partner said he went over to the guy and asked him why he made the call. The guy replied that A1 was in the lane for three seconds and that he (the partner) had even yelled at him to get out of the lane twice!

My partner calmly explained the rule about three seconds requiring team control and the guy said, "Are you sure?" My partner said he replied, "Am I sure? You're asking me 'Am I Sure'? What are you - a coach?"

He then announced there was an inadvertent whistle and they resumed play.

He told me that was a new one for him. I told him it would have been a new one for me too.

Not sure if this newbie had 1 year of experience twice, or not.

perfect example where common sense could have helped.

Why is it the most important part? The OTHER TEAM HAD THE BALL. That is all we needed to know. If there is no team control, location is irrelevant.

Accurately reading the post is also important. :o

Common sense has nothing to do with it. Simply properly understanding and enforcing the rule as written would have handled the matter perfectly.

Who declared the inadvertent whistle?

Send that new ref here to Africa with us...he'll fit right in with our refs!

Why common sense? Rules knowledge would have been sufficient.

Obviously, it was the experienced guy. BTW - I asked him how the rest of the game went and he said it wasn't bad. Apparently the other guy thought every foul he called was a "hand check", however, since he used that mechanic pretty much every time regardless of what the foul was really for.

Ironically, I watched a young kid do that same thing in a park district league game in which one of my granddaughters was playing a few months ago. It wasn't the same guy, but maybe they got the same training or something.

Consider a person who is very familiar with sports in general but doesn't know anything about basketball. Knowing what each team is trying to do at that point, would they think such a call made sense or not. I think they would and they'd agree that it didn't make any sense. Thus, common sense is adequate to get the right result in this case....explicit knowledge of the rule shouldn't have even been necessary.

One thing that can muddy the waters for the uninformed regarding the 3-seconds call is that the NBA actually does have a violation for defensive 3-seconds. We all know how many like to get their rules from the NBA.

Fixed it for ya'. ;)

At the CYO game this past season where the other team had to forfeit for lack of players and we had a scrimmage instead, my partner called an offensive 3 second violation when the team in control had yet to cross the time line. :eek:

I ask only because I am a rather strong believer that the calling official should be the one to reverse his calls if if is pointed out to him to be incorrect -- and that includes everything from rules stupidity to getting an out-of-bounds call wrong. I don't like the tone that is set by one official overruling another. Better to give him the dope a chance to take it back, with a little conference involving head-nodding, even if the substance of the chat is to advise the offender that his love-life will be gravely endangered if he doesn't make it right.