Irate Coach!
 

Our Assignor received an email from an Irate Coach which I will paste a portion below.

How should this be handled??

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 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 da whistle. After a
conference it is decided that its a jump ball and based on possession it
was ABC's ball.

Maybe Da Coach (no, not that Da Coach) should read Da Rulebook and find Da Rule. So next time Da Coach hears Da Ref blow Da Whistle, he'll know what it's for.

Sorry. Couldn't help myself.

Since the administering gave the correct information about the number of free throws, this is an inadvertent whistle... resume from the point of interruption which in this case, a throw-in to the team in control of the ball.

The irate coach from ABC ought to be sending the officials a thank-you note for screwing up. Now they can push the ball with a long inbounds pass without losing precious seconds. Erroneously losing the arrow with under 9.4 left isn't likely to hurt them anyway.

It also gives the defense a chance to set up when his team could have pushed the ball up the court (9.4 seconds is plenty of time) and have the defense scrambling.

MY BAD...The arrow was point to XYZ...The coach from ABC was irate because he lost a possession due to the whistle and he was down 4 with 3 timeouts left

Officials screwed up. Flogging is acceptable.

Now he should be mad

Did your assignor reply by explaining the "no overtime" policy? :p

he should be mad as his own horrid use of timeouts, or lack thereof...

Coach has every right to be mad at a rules misapplication...whether he would have gotten the ball back with the arrow or not.

Did ABC Coach protest the game?

What do timeouts have to do with any of this?

The coach of ABC still had 3 timeouts with only 9.4 seconds left on the clock. All we can do is guess, but I think SAJ means the coach should have used his timeouts earlier so as to preserve more time on the clock.

And that has nothing to do with the officials misapplying a rule.

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.

Most time-out are called when the clock is stopped or when that team is in possession of the ball, don't see how that would preserve time on the clock. :confused:

It's not football where you have downs.

You don't think a coach should be upset if there is a rules mis-application or a terrible error in judgment in the last 10 seconds of a closely contested game?

Rookie,

The OP asks "How should this be handled"? Do you mean the situation on the floor or how it should be handled now that it's over.

On the floor, you can't go back. But these are lessons that stay with us. Late in the game, all officials have to be on top of such things.

If it was me, I would apologize to the coach; probably through my assignor. Some may not agree with this but I believe that coaches appreciate that officials are capable of admitting a mistake. The coach wrote a letter that was reasonable; he did not ask for heads to roll. A reasonable response from the assignor or association would be appropriate.

That struck me as odd.

i didn't say he shouldn't be mad

Why would lead official who just said 1n1 to the girls "come onto the court" after the miss? The coaches interpretation of the situation doesn't make sense.

It'd have to a quick whistle to come before anyone rebounds the miss. Thus, give the ball to ABC at POI.

There are just some bad officials out there. Level of play has nothing to do with that. We don't know the whole story but if we take it at face value the officials screwed up. Did it effect the outcome? Who knows, but most likely not.

Agreed that there could be another side to the story, but remember what the coach said that the offense lined nobody up and that defense secured the rebound. Going to the AP favoring the offense is not correct.

More importantly, our concentration needs to be better, especially at the end of the game. A lack of focus buried this crew which would be a shame if they reffed the rest of the game well.

The Assignor and Head of Training for our Association has a meeting scheduled with the AD and HC. Plus they will review the video of the game as well.

I will update the outcome of these meetings

Are they ok with you posting this on the interwebs?