Possession question

[crosscountry55]

Originally Posted by finqb13

I'm not a bb official, but was asked about this instance. Buzzer goes off at the end of the 3rd quarter and the official calls for a jump ball. Arrow says team A. Teams go to benches and come back out for the 4th and team b is awarded possession of the ball. Team A got the throw in for the 3rd quarter. The argument was why didn't team A get the throw in for the 4th quarter after the official called a jump ball? Thank you.

The thread was briefly on point and then got off topic. So I wanted to get back to the OP.

When a violation or held ball occurs so close to the expiration of playing time for a quarter that the timer is unable to stop the clock in time, the quarter ends with the violation or held ball. In other words, we essentially ignore it unless we have definite knowledge of a timing mistake that would give us reason to put time back on the clock.

So in this case, it sounds like it was a case of a held ball nearly simultaneous with the expiration of time. Leave the clock alone, ignore the held ball, send the teams to their benches and start the next quarter with whoever had the arrow in the first place, which is Team A....

....Except the officials in this case went with Team B. So either they made a mistake or the table corrected an arrow mistake during the intermission. Since you said that Team A had the arrow to start the 3rd, it could be that the table and officials realized that there had been no uses of the arrow during the 3rd quarter and therefore the arrow was wrong. This happens all the time in sub-varsity contests with inexperienced table personnel. It's why I always alternate a spare whistle in my pockets. That's right; I have a possession arrow in my pants.

[Nevadaref]

Originally Posted by crosscountry55

It's why I always alternate a spare whistle in my pockets. That's right; I have a possession arrow in my pants.

That is a practice appropriate for MS officials. I would suggest that you discard it and just look at the arrow on the table after every AP throw-in to confirm that it is properly switched.

Originally Posted by Nevadaref

That is a practice appropriate for MS officials.

And apparently a couple D1 officials I have seen on tv recently.

[Nevadaref]

Originally Posted by AremRed

And apparently a couple D1 officials I have seen on tv recently.

Really? You are saying that officials with access to a courtside video monitor and play-by-play technology are using a whistle in their pockets to track AP?

Originally Posted by Nevadaref

Really? You are saying that officials with access to a courtside video monitor and play-by-play technology are using a whistle in their pockets to track AP?

Yes. I guess some habits die hard.

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by AremRed

Yes. I guess some habits die hard.

Here, in my little corner of Connecticut, we are very strongly encouraged (from the get go, during training) to keep track of the possession arrow with an extra whistle in our pocket. We've been doing this since the invention of the possession arrow. Last week, during our Cancer Awareness Week (one quarter game fee donated to American Cancer Society), we used pink whistles. Since using a pink whistle was not part of my usual pregame routine, I forgot my backup pocket whistle. It was a varsity game, I knew that the table had the arrow under control, and I knew that my partner had his backup pocket whistle, but I still felt totally naked without it. I couldn't wait for halftime to stuff that extra whistle in my pocket.

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by Nevadaref

That is a practice appropriate for MS officials.

Damn right. Our Catholic middle school games don't even have an arrow at the table. Never had. They leave it up to the officials to keep track, and there are a lot of held balls in a middle school game, especially a girls middle school game.