I don't know what the NCAA rule is but I would hope it is similar to NFHS: 2.8.1 NOTE: "The officials may call fouls on either team if its supporters act in such a way as to interfere with the proper conduct of the game. Discretion must be used in calling such fouls, however, lest a team be unjustly penalized."
The key word here seems to be "unjustly." I think this case could possibly be considered unjust.

That's the catch. The article didn't say if this caused a great delay or not. Sound to me like it really didn't. The ball was dead, the officials had to report the foul and get them lined up for a free-throw. The article says that the fans were quickly ushered off the court, but doesn't really say what quickly is. I agree that you can't blame the officials for the loss, there is no question about that, this just doesn't seem like the right call in this situation. I can see this being called in a regular season game, but in the playoffs, boy I don't know.

A girl I used to coach plays in NCAA D2 here in Pennsylvania. They had a game earlier this season (I was listening to the internet broadcast) where the opponents' scored a three-point basket to go ahead by two. The clock was stopped after the basket with :00.5 remaining. The opponents came on to the floor to celebrate and were hit with a technical. My former player's team made both FTs, forced OT, and won the game.

I was surprised that they called it (I think they weren't going to until the coach brought it to their attention, based on the broadcast) but after reading what Bob posted, I'm much less surprised.

http://www.redzonemedia.com/teampages/iupwbb.html and "CLICK FOR ARCHIVE" for the Jan 25 game, and jump to about 2:12:00 to catch the end of regulation.

[Edited by A Pennsylvania Coach on Mar 4th, 2003 at 10:32 AM]

I agree. There could not have been a delay in making the ball live or interference by fans in this case. I could not justify making this call in a playoff or regular season game and I like to think I would have worked really hard to prevent the crew from making this call.

How many fans were on the court? 3, 5, 10, 40 and growing? we do not know since the writer choose for some reason not to give us that info. I'd suggest he had a motive for that. Sympathy for the team? Was he the hometown reporter?

If hordes of fans were charging the floor, then the aspects Bob cites in the NCAA book have been met and you have to make your decision: do I enforce the rule or not? At some point, the number of fans on the court interrupts the game and as officials we have to make a judgement when that ocurrs. When that figure is met in the official's judgement, you'd better have the steel to make the call.
Finally, the fans cost their team the game by putting the officials in a position of having to make a very tough call or not.

Those are my 2 cents.

Yes.

What if enough fans came onto the court that it prevented the calling official (remember, a foul had just been called) from reporting the foul. That would certainly delay the ball from becoming live again. Can't administer the FT until the foul is reported. Just a thought.

Chuck

Still can't see it doing it, in any event I think it would take one heck of a lot of fans swarming on the floor to delay the foul reporting.

Bottom line, nothing happens until the players line up for FTs anyway, so it's hard to justify a T for delay. Even if the delay is a few minutes to get the swarming fans off he floor.

This makes it easy for me. I never call this T. It is tough when it is a basket and the other team is trying to inbound.
Also, notice that bob jenkins' post says "players and fans" come onto the court. This case seemed to be just fans. In my mind that is a big distinction and I don't penalize a team for the stupidity of their fans. The action of the fans was not unsportsmanlike, just over exuberant.