Power Play in Hoops Game
 

Always a bunch of gems from the comment section...
 

"If there is one unwritten fact about officiating, it is that a refs want a game to be a blowout. One team physically and methodically eliminating the opponent, thus, the referees influence is taken out of the game and they will put the game on cruise control, managing intricacies, and the controlling the game clock. Close basketball games create contentious calls and fouls, coaches petitioning for future fouls, bleacher creatures, and mistakes are made the heat of the moment.

Basketball officiating, definitely a job I would not want to do."

Have to say of all the 'unwritten rules' I've heard about from fans over the years...can't say I've heard this one before.

Time to add it to the unwritten rule book which is written by fan-boys that I keep somewhere....

If the opposing coaches saw it, why didn't they (politely if possible) let the ref crew know?

This made me laugh. I doubt the opposing coaches were not letting the officials know the other team had 6 players on the court, if they were aware of it, and I would be floored if they were doing so politely.

This is another case where the pre-game meeting is very important. We talk about this before every game...

1. After reporting the foul the trail official checks to make sure everything is ready to go, which includes the number of players on the floor, and then signals to the center official the number of free throws.

2. The center official makes sure everything is good, including the number of players, and signals the number of free throws to the lead official.

3. The lead official makes sure everything is good (again, including the number of players), then signals and vocalizes the number of free throws to the shooter/players, and proceeds to administer the free throw.

Not only do you get a triple-check of things being ready to go, but you make sure everybody is on the same page. Heck, that couple of extra seconds also gives coaches or the scorer's table time to point out a mistake if necessary.

Ocean's Eleven ...
 

Proper mechanics, and a good pregame, will pretty much insure that there are never eleven players on the court, but that won't prevent the player that thinks he's being substituted for, sits down on the bench, and then, when the ball becomes live again, mistakenly believes that he misunderstood the substitution, and gets up, and walks, unnoticed, onto the court. That's not on us.

When something odd like this does happen, it's usually the coaches, or fans, that do the math, showing all work, first, and they're usually not too shy about letting us know. How fast can you count up to six?

It's true... no matter how much we prepare things are going to happen. But, in this case, it looks like proper preparation could have prevented this issue.

Are We Lazy ???
 

It would for you. It looks like you got some in-game protocols to prevent this.

Right, or wrong, we (IAABO mechanics, almost all two person) don't have such in-game protocols in place. We only count players before the jump, after intermissions, after timeouts, and after substitutions. We don't usually count before free throws, unless there is a timeout, or substitution, involved.

Unless there was a timeout, or substitution, involved with this free throw, and unless some coaches, or fans, stated yelling, there's a slight chance that I might have screwed the pooch on this play myself. There but for the grace of God, go I.

("Screwing the pooch", and "grace of God", in the same post, during Lent, I'd better get to confession soon.)

The time it happened to me the coach screamed his head off and we caught it and handled it.... right after the team with six on the court hit a BIG three point shot....:o

And No Crying In Baseball ...
 

No do-overs in basketball.

I was offering a way to help prevent things for happening, I certainly wasn't calling anybody lazy.

Which makes me think the coaches were not aware of it until after.

Agreed, and if they want to blame the officials for the loss, I'm sure they could look back through video and find another mistake, real or imagined, that actually impacted a play.

The article really hyped the team getting "screwed". The 6th man had no impact on the game, unless he was on the court before the foul. Plus, there's no way the other team saw it. They would have been screaming. This reporter needs to check his facts. Were they sitting there chatting amongst themselves - "Hey our opponent has 6 men out there - I hope the refs see it. Darn, they didn't see it." I doubt any fans noticed it early. They're usually not shy about pointing it out.

Agreed. In most cases, screaming won't get you a call. In this case, it quite possibly would.