Opening Tipoff went wrong way
 

First time poster here. Wanted to ask about something I saw today on the opening tipoff of a Middle school game. Team 1 took the court and the jumper lined up facing the wrong way. Team 2 took the court and their jumper subsequently lined up facing the wrong hoop. Team 2 won the tip, tipping it forward and Team 2 went in for a layup. The referee signaled 2-0 Team 1 and gave the ball to Team 2 under the basket. Team 2 inbounded and scored right away and the referee signaled 4-0 Team 1. Team 2 coach called a timeout and pointed out the players were initially allowed to line up facing the wrong basket. The referee said it was not a correctable error and said its either 4-0 Team 1 or start the game over. The game was started over. If the officals allow the teams to go in the wrong direction to start shouldn't it be 4-0 Team2 and play resumed after the timeout call with the players going in the right direction (rule 5, section 1, article 3). Thank you.

5.2.1 SITUATION F:

During the pregame practice period, the visiting team properly uses the east goal and the home team the west goal. The officials, by mistake, allow the jumpers to face the wrong direction to start the game. Several baskets are scored before it is recognized that both teams are throwing the ball into the opponent's basket.

RULING: All points scored count as if the teams had gone the right direction and scored in their own basket. Once the mistake is recognized, play shall continue with each team attempting to score in its own basket. (4-5-4)

Yup. APG's case play is spot on. Soooooo...the officials should have recognized that they allowed the teams to line up the wrong way after the first basket by Team 2. So stop the game there, give the points to Team 2, and then march all the way to the other end of the court and give Team 1 an endline throw-in under Team 1's basket.

Instead, the officials essentially failed to acknowledge that they had erred, stating that Team 2 erred by scoring at the opponent's basket and crediting the points to Team 1. And they compounded the problem by giving the ball right back to Team 2 under Team 2's basket.

I guess it's sorta good that they eventually agreed to the option of re-starting the game, even though technically they should not have done so (there's no rule provision for this). It meant they recognized that they had messed up to begin the game by lining up the teams the wrong way. But this error should have been corrected immediately upon recognition after that first Team 2 basket; that would have saved a lot of additional embarrassment.

But the crew shouldn't feel too bad. A Karl Hess crew messed up this same rule at a game at Marquette a few years ago.

Sounds to me like the officials immediately noticed the problem, but maybe did a poor job of explaining it. They scored the points for team 1, then correctly gave the ball back to team 2, I assume under the same basket they had just scored in, but apparently they inbounded and scored in that same basket again.

Maybe now that he has lots of free time, he's officiating middle school games.

Him and Boroski, best middle school crew in the nation!

Yeah, but what the Hess crew did on top of that is that they had a goaltending call that would've been for Connecticut and they wiped that and didn't score it as if nothing happened. . .

I totally remember that game - Ollie from UConn kept asking why the score for the goaltend didn't count?

made me laugh

That's the 2nd middle school game I've heard of this season that had that exact scenario happen in a game....It doesn't surprise me that the same officials who allowed teams to line up in the wrong direction don't know how to administer the rule to resolve this situation. That's EXACTLY why they're working those middle school games....

Nothing about what they did is correct.

If they scored Team 1's bucket for Team 2, they recognized their mistake and needed to give the ball to TEAM 1. If they didn't recognize the mistake at this point, then Team 2 just scored in the wrong bucket.

What exactly is the signal for 2-0 Team 1?