Do you mean if it says that don't use it? ;)

Peace

LOL, yeah. I was thinking of the opposite problem. :D

It happened to me 10+ years ago. Played about a quarter with a guy's ball in a girl's game. I was T and the girl dribbled up the court saying "this is a guy's ball." We switched it right away. The JV officials played the entire game with the one we were using and no one noticed.

Now I check for 28.5 on the ball when doing a girl's game.

Going back before the gap, I think the smaller ball might have saved me 4 or 5 tosses per game. Still think the AP arrow was the best rule change during the 26 year continuum.

How's this for confusing? Two of the MS rec leagues I work use different sizes for 6th grade boys. One uses the 28.5 and the other uses the 30. Sometimes I get those different games on consecutive nights or maybe a few hours apart on a Saturday. Sometimes I have to check my copy of the rules to remember which ball to use for those games. Once last season, I asked my partner prior to a game and he just shrugged. It wasn't that he necessarily didn't know, he just didn't care.

At my age, anything that challenges my memory just adds to the general confusion in my so-called brain. :o

one size fits all
 

They ought to go back to one size. Bunch of wussies.:D

Suspend them all for two weeks.
Checking the game ball is a simple duty.
The only reason for not doing it properly is laziness.

Had a D1 official who would run a camp for the local board every summer. One of his tricks was to insert a womens ball into a game at halftime and see how long it would be before anyone noticed it.

From that time on, I have always paid attention to what ball was provided to play with at the start of each half.

I lost my battle to get the local 8-10 yr old league to stop using the men's ball ...

How about also issuing a "T" for using illegal equipment to any player who touched the ball?

Rules rulz!

Guilty as charged.

I was clock operator in a league tournament. Alternating varsity boys' and girls' games. After a couple of minutes in the second half of a boys' game, one of the officials came over to the table with the ball, and said, calmly, "Do you have another ball back there. This one doesn't seem to have enough air in it." He handed us the girls' ball, and we gave him the other one...which happened to be a boys' ball. I don't know that anyone, other than him, knew what was the problem.

I always thought that official was one of the best, and his handling of this problem reinforced my opinion.

That really is confusing considering the normal size for a ball is 29.5.

But we are MEN
 

In Washington State we use a women's ball for all MS games. I was checking the game ball before we started and noticed that it was a Men's ball. I mentioned it to the home coach and asked him for a smaller ball. He told me they only have the men's size and that is what they had been playing and practicing with. So, I went to the visiting coach and asked if they had a game ball we could use because the home team could only provide a men's ball. To which the whole visiting team of scrawny 7th graders puffed their chests, flexed their biceps and replied "but we are men".

They were that day as both teams had been using the men's size ball for practice and play.

Now that's what I'm talking about!!:D

Here We Go Again ...
 

Houston, we've had a problem.