Thank goodness, his team never turned the ball over once, or never missed a free throw. It's all the officials fault...

I'm curious now. Can we see the rest of the e-mail? Did the coach mention timeouts left and possibly other irrelevant things in a rant? I assume we're talking about a varsity game, but whatever level how often are girls gonna get back into a two possession game with under 10 seconds left and they have to go the length of the floor at the beginning?

I just want to know if the coach REALLY typed this: "The back official blows da whistle."

Since the excerpt was (inaccurately) edited in other ways by the OP, I hate not knowing for sure.

And yes, I'd LOVE to read the whole thing. I second the motion!

As requested here is the letter with names and schools redacted to protect those involve:)

Yesterday one of the officials assigned to our game made a critical mistake
that had a huge impact on the outcome of the game. Down by 4 points, we
fouled a player from XYZ HS with 9.4 seconds left. At the time that was
our 9th team foul. The girls line up and the official under the basket
signals for a 1 and 1. the first free throw is missed and one of my player
gets the rebound but the referee under the basket steps onto
the court. The back official blows his whistle. After a
conference it is decided that its a jump ball and based on possession it
was XYZ ball.

I have a huge issue with how this was handled because there was no logic
behind it. One, XYZ did not line up anyone to rebound the ball,
while I had four girls lined up. Second, the mistake made by the referee
should not have given the other team the ball because it was not an
inadvertent whistle made by the official who made the mistake. The back
official blew his whistle because partner was clueless as to what he did.
Not to say it would have been any better but if they shot the free throw
over we don't lose anymore time on the clock. To make things worse, the
official who made the mistake never apologized or explained what happen.
Instead he left it up to his partner.

At stake was the opportunity to win our school's first championship in 34
years. The game was hard fought and being down by 4 with the league's
leading scorer and school's all time three point shooter on my team I liked
our chances especially since we were in the bonus situation with four
timeouts left.

I understand people make mistakes but more time should have been taken to
discuss what happened and the officials should have done what made most
sense and that was to give our team the ball since we got the rebound.

I really think it needs to be examined by senior
members of your Assoc.and discussed because the ruling made last night does
not seem to make sense at all.

Signed Coach Jones
ABC High

Now that you have the whole letter... Yes Girls Varsity

How should this have been handled? Do we have AP since no team control on a Free Throw? Or since ABC got the rebound..should they have been awarded a throw in?

I will defer to more experienced members of the forum, however I believe the rule hinges on when the whistle was blown. During the try = no team control = alternating-possession throw-in. This assumes the free-throw was missed. After the rebound has been secured = ABC team control = throw in for ABC.

Whatever the rule says for the first situation however, there is no way I would have deferred to the AP arrow. Team XYZ is essentially giving up their right to a rebound (yes I know the shooter could get the rebound) by pulling all of their players into their back court. I would not allow an officials error to give possession to a team that had no business getting possession after completion of the free-throws.

ABC gets a throw-in b/c they had control at the time of the (inadvertent) whistle.

Backing up, though difficult when partner demonstrates a clear lack of awareness re: game situation, T should have never blown the whistle in the first place. Sure, L's the ***, but T is the reason it got messy.

Just let ABC advance the ball with clueless partner in lane (hopefully) coming out of coma as the clock winds down. If not, then HE blows the whistle and he becomes the tool (well, he already was, but you know what I mean).

Sounds like both officials are to blame. Other than that, I'm okay up to this point.




Logic is not the prime factor, but in this case, I think the right call (after the IW) would have also been the logical call.


If I understand correctly the lead stepped in, apparently thinking two shots. To be sure, this is a mistake. But then, the trail official sounded the IW, which is, of course, itself a mistake.

He would have been less upset if they had awarded another free throw?



I got it. Had the mistake not been made, here's how it would have gone.

Rebound Timeout Set up play Go the length of the floor & hit a 3
Timeout Foul immediately on throw-in After free throws, make or miss, call another timeout. Go down and score again............and if you have trouble getting the ball in, you still have a timeout to spare.

This is really..............optimistic.

Someone needs to formulate a rule about this. I mean, the chances of winning in relation to point differential and time remaining.

This is one that I have found to be true: "The team that goes up by five points in overtime always wins."

On the record, don't cloud your mind with such thoughts.

Off the record, your rule is not bad, but I think:

"A girls team down 4 with under 10 seconds never wins."

is even better.

On the record: what thoughts?

Off the record: I know :)

Don't relax too early thinking the game is over before it's over.

You Can Observe A Lot By Watching ...
 

I didn't know that Yogi was a Forum member.

APG provided the answer in post #3: this is an inadvertent whistle (no matter what the coach says). Resume at POI, which in this case is possession to the team in control. He should have gotten the ball back.

As for how to handle the coach: all he's asking for is that the situation be discussed at a local meeting so that it doesn't happen again. Given how upset he was, that's a pretty reasonable request. I think I'd thank him for an excellent suggestion.

All of you who are claiming the officials made a mistake (going with the arrow) may be giving this letter too much weight and you're assuming the coach is telling the whole story. If the officials deemed that the play was dead before the rebound was secured, they were correct in going with the arrow. We all know there are two sides to every story. I'm going to assume the coach embellished a bit because he was upset and perhaps didn't understand the whole situation.

I also think the OP should not have modified what was said in the letter (da whistle) to make it seem like the coach was saying something he didn't.