He might have been looking there to help chop the clock. I agree with you about not having all the information.

I had a play earlier in the year where on a rebound a offensive player saved a ball and threw it near the BC. I was the lead and nothing was called. I had no idea if it was touched or controlled, but I could tell by the reaction that something had happened. I left it alone because I had nothing to give but that a player threw the ball near the BC. It probably was a BC violation, but I was watching rebounding and making sure the player saving the ball was not fouled or continuous contact after save.

Peace

I wholeheartedly agree. And worse, the C was going with the original call and was transitioning to the other end of the floor. He saw the whole play as well, but obviously wasn't going to do anything about it. Great job by L....

Unless NCAA is different than NFHS, he would be looking there to start the clock on the first touch.

I had the reverse of this (2 man). I was trail, ball was in opposite corner so I'm looking at off ball post play. Ball goes flying into back court and I have no idea if the offense was last to touch. The offensive player hesitated and then grabbed it. I hit my whistle for a backcourt violation, thinking that a whistle could be corrected, but no whistle couldn't. Based on the coach's reaction to the call, I went to my partner and asked if the ball was last touched in the FC by the defense. He said it was, so I changed to an inadvertant whistle. Wish my partner had come to me right away, but I guess he assumed I had seen something else.

+1

Many get that leg up with; great appearance, strong mechanics, fitness, ability to handle pressure and other strong personalities, confidence, and personal relationships (networking). There are a lot of officials that have similar abilities, and these are some of the things that can separate you from the herd. Rules knowledge aside I believe at least most D1 or higher officials possess many if not all of these intangibles.

Isn't the Lead responsible for chopping the clock on FC end line throw-ins?

This is one where the L should be making the backcourt call (or not)...assuming there is no close play at the division line that would need the T's position to see. Short of that, the L could indicate to the trail, with a tip signal, that the ball was indeed tipped coming out of the L's primary.

Correct. In that two-person game, the Trail should not have blown his whistle and instead looked to his partner for the new tip signal.