The Worst Error You've ever made reffing a game?

First 8th grade game: Team A scores a basket and forms up to press. B1 passes the ball along the endline to B2. This looks really weird. I call a violation and give the ball to Team A. At halftime I check my rulebook and right next to the rule is a red question mark I wrote down a few months earlier indicating I didn't understand what that rule meant. When I came out after halftime, Coach B was waiting for me. Holding a rulebook in his hand.

First varsity game: also my first three-man game, I had a block/charge play which I got right. I was so focused on making the right call that I forgot the number of the player who committed the foul. Reported the wrong number, won't do that again.

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by AremRed

I had a block/charge play which I got right. I was so focused on making the right call that I forgot the number of the player who committed the foul.

Most player control (charge) calls here in my little corner of two person Connecticut are taken by the lead. I'm pretty close, but not exact, to the book in my player control signal. I usually take a step, or two, onto the court as I sound my whistle (look at me, I'm about to make a big block/charge call), signal the foul with a fist in the air, put the other hand behind my head for the player control foul, and then point in the other direction for the next possession, while at the same time stating, "Player control. Blue ball". Sometimes I have to use the no basket signal. At this point, for some unknown reason, I have crept up a few more steps off the endline, and with the torso to torso contact, I have yet to see the number the offending player. At this time the two players involved have both fallen to the floor, are usually in a pile on the floor, and they're usually slightly behind me (those little creeping steps add up). Now I have to take a few steps toward the two players to get things sorted out (like a football official separating players after a fumble), and then grab the number before I approach the reporting area. It's never easy, it happens about a dozen times every season, for the past thirty-two years. I've tried to break this bad creeping habit, but old habits, especially bad habits, die hard.

[BillyMac]

I won't go into the details because I've described the play several times on the Forum already. After a successful free throw by Team B, as Team A is bringing the ball up the court against pressure from Team B, I get to a count of ten and call a ten second backcourt violation against Team A. Team A coach goes bananas as he's pointing to the game clock, something about only seven seconds running off the clock since the successful free throw. I have to T him up. On the ride home, discussing the play with my partner, we decide that I probably turned a five second inbound count (maybe three seconds) into a ten second backcourt count (seven more seconds), without resetting in between the two counts. That's why we're supposed to change hands with each separate count.

[grunewar]

Many yrs ago, in one of my first MS games (before even reading the rules and taking the test), I called a 5 second closely guarded violation IN THE BACK COURT! Oh, the horror!

My partner was like,

[Texas Aggie]

Honestly, based on the calls I and partners have made (or not made) and missed, NOTHING comes close to problems caused by others -- usually scorers and timers. I don't mean to pick on these guys because 98% of the time, they do a good job and get it right, but when they mess up, particularly the timer, things go to hell faster than you can say, "I love my mother-in-law."

I was watching a game a few years ago when the timer started the clock when the team doing the throw in passed along the baseline out of bounds. Nobody really noticed the clock starting since everyone was watching the play but when the buzzer went off in 3 seconds rather than 5 or 6, it was obvious something got screwed up. Then, they reset the clock and do it again, only the clock guy set it for 6 MINUTES rather than seconds, and the buzzer never goes off! They reset for a third time (I don't know why, other than the screaming by one of the coaches got to them) and the game ends like it should.

The officials did NOTHING wrong (except allow the third replay -- should have ended the game or at worst, put a second back on the clock and go throw in) and yet I'm sure were blamed.

[JetMetFan]

In the "little bit of knowledge is a bad thing" category, this one happened while I was officiating intramurals in college. We had a good program so I'd gotten into the rule book and discovered the ball is dead immediately after a made FG/FT.

Team A makes a FG and Team B hasn't picked up the ball to inbound it. Team A has a sub at the table...so, knowing the ball was dead and remembering subs can enter on a dead ball, I let A6 into the game. Kind of like a line change in hockey. Everyone just started shaking their heads.

[Multiple Sports]

I can remember getting punked a few times by coaches as a young official and not stepping up and giving a technical foul....

Driving four hrs home and realizing I left my stones at home really pissed me off.....doesn't happen anymore !!!