Plays: Elephant vs. Gnat

[Raymond]

Originally Posted by Kansas Ref

Many officiating crews "struggle" with the issue of: "leave the play alone" or "whistle the foul/violation" when it occurs not just out of but even tangential to our PCA's.

What I normally do is to "leave it alone" if I am more than 20 feet removed from the spot of the incident, at the risk of either missing the call or dis-engaging my ref partners. I have seen crews get totally lambasted by coaches when a glaring violation is missed by a ref in the PCA. Then again I have heard coaches remark "missed that one and play through it". to their chagrined players.

I left it alone because, as the L, I would have had no credibility making that call. I can't speak for the C b/c I have no idea what other matchups he had and I do not believe A1 was closely guarded at any time for him to stay on the play as it left him. But in our conversation of the play, the C did say he saw it. I had closed down in preparation of rotating, then I saw A1 come into my peripheral has he brought the ball strong side. I then took a couple steps back from close down as I mirrored the ball. So I know the violation definitely occurred fully in the Trail's primary

But I wonder, if there were 10-15 seconds left in a tied ballgame, would it change our thinking on this. Would we want to have to watch film of an obvious violation followed by a game-winning shot, or would we then consider this violation an elephant based on time & score?