Dead ball contact: T or not?

[Zoochy]

Originally Posted by BayStateRef

Men's league, played under NFHS rules.

Team A has a throw-in under its basket. Before the ball is at the disposal of A1, the trail official calls a foul on A2 for pushing B2. The calling official said he did not know the ball was not live when he made the call.

Case book says intentional contact while the ball is dead is a technical foul. "If other dead-ball contact is not intentional or flagrant, it should be ignored." (10.3.7)

Now what? The foul was not intentional in the rules sense....but the official did not ignore it...because he did not know the ball was not live. Do we say "inadvertent whistle" and administer the throw-in again? Or must it be a technical foul for dead ball contact?

I saw this same play happen in a Girls post season game. The calling official just called it a regular foul. I was sitting next to another officials and asked them "where was the ball at the time of the foul?" He agreed that it should have been rulled a Technical foul. Oh well........

[BayStateRef]

Originally Posted by Zoochy

I saw this same play happen in a Girls post season game. The calling official just called it a regular foul. I was sitting next to another officials and asked them "where was the ball at the time of the foul?" He agreed that it should have been ruled a Technical foul. Oh well........

I saw this in a high school game a few years ago as well, where the officials also went with a common foul. But as others here agree, that is not the right call....nor is it a technical foul unless the contact is intentional or flagrant.

The casebook is clear: ignore the contact unless it is intentional or flagrant. If you blow the whistle by mistake, then an "oops, my bad" seems to be the proper call.