Free Throw Disrupted By Fan
 

This situation happened this week. Girls varsity game. Visitor is shooting the first of 2 FTs. Home fan (happens to be a varsity boys player) runs to the baseline under the hoop and starts waving his arms. Before anything can be done by our crew the girl shoots and missed badly.

We gave her a replacement shot. Explained things to home coach without objection. Game management took care of the fan.

Thoughts?

That's how I would have done it, assuming I didn't get the whistle blown earlier.

There is no rule allowing you to give a replacement free throw for this.
You should have penalized the home team with a technical foul for failure to control its spectators and allowing one of them to interfere with the game.

NevadaRef:

I agree with you. While we would all agree that the very, very, very, very last thing that an official would ever want to do to charge a team's fans with a TF, the OP is one of the rare times when an official has no choice to bite the bullet and do so.

MTD, Sr.

In hind sight I agree with all the comments. I am happy with the way it was handled but I also understand the technical foul that could have been issued. Thanks for the feedback.

This is a rare case to use 2-3 IMO...readminister the first FT.

I would recommend to not issue a technical foul. Nevada is of the mind that issuing technical fouls to the home team for spectator behavior should be used more liberally than 96.532 percent of other officialsbelieve. In Nevada's world, anyone could appear as a fan for an opponent...and do the same thing to distract...get a missed Ft...and then 2 additional FT's for his real team.

While there is no rule to support the replacement FT, I believe my assignors would rather that was how this were handled rather than giving the home team a TF.

I don't mean to say my personal feelings trump the rules, but it doesn't seem right to punish the home team like that. It's not the teams responsibility to control the crowd, so why should they be punished like that?

Especially If They're Wearing Groucho Marx Glasses ...
 

Agree. They can be anybody.

One cannot invoke 2-3 when there is already rules coverage provided to handle the situation.

That is why you work with game management to determine the identity of the individual before having the person removed or issuing any penalty.
Notice that the OP stated that this was a member of the boys varsity team from the home school.

Compromise ???
 

Good point. In this case the distracting fan was very easy to identify, other times, it may be more difficult, or even impossible.

How about Fundamental #16: The official’s whistle seldom causes the ball to become dead (it is already dead).

The officials couldn't sound their whistles in time to stop the try, so, in reality, the player may have shot a dead ball. Try again.

Sorry, but this doesn't mean we can just declare the ball has been dead because it's more convenient. There is a list of things that make the ball dead, and none of them involve a fan.

A fan committing an act which results in a team technical foul would make the ball dead, barring a try being in flight. Of course, the official would have to be stopping play to charge the technical foul!

My first question would be how certain are we the miss was because of the fan? If it was too late to stop it.....

Part Of The Game ???
 

We see fans (granted, mostly in higher levels, college, NBA; but some in high school) trying to distract free throw shooters all the time, without any repercussions. What makes this situation so special? Because the offender was a member of the opponent's other gender team?

Technical foul is a nuclear option. Rules really don't allow us to give a replacement free throw. We're stuck.

2-3, although not technically relevant, seems the most appropriate way to approach this matter.

Maybe it's one of those "sometimes we just have to officiate" situations.

Maybe we just ask the site director to keep fans away from the endline during free throws, and move on.

My guess is that the fan was on the floor rather than in the stands. I think that's a significant difference.

Or The Rest Room ???
 

Fans are often on the floor. How else are they going to get to the concession stand? In a Catholic middle school game, I once had an adult fan, in a very crowded gymnasium, walk onto the court (with a hot dog in his hand) and get in the way of an errant pass that was on it's way out of bounds and ended up staying in play.

In fifteen years, I've never had a fan on the floor actively trying to interfere with play.

As I have stated before I am a very firm believer in NOT charging fans with TFs. No good can come from it 99.999,999,999% of the time.

There are some leagues in that State up North (Sorry StripedYooper but GO BUCKEYES!!) where the boys' and girls' JV teams of schools A and B play at the same school on one night and the VAR teams play at the same school the next night like one Class C and D league did in the LP a couple years ago and the same crew of officials will officiate both games on a given night. This is the only reason that I can assume for the game officials knewing that the fan was a member of the VAR team, meanng that he could have been in his warm-ups because the boys' game was the second game of the evening. And I am only presuming here but this type of conduct does make for a dicey situatioin for the game officials.

I have officiated for 44 years and luckily I have never been in a situatioin where one would even make the suggestion that a team's fan should be charged with a TF. The MAC for a number of years had a problems with some of its member colleges whose fans would throw rolls of toilet paper onto the floor the first time its team would score and the league mandated that the team be charged with a TF. That ended that nonsense very quickly..

Alright, I have added my two cents to the situation.

MTD, Sr.

Billy:

I would have asked the fan where the hot dogs and Cokes for my partner and myself were, :p?

MTD, Sr.

In 8 years, I hadn't either, until my last game of this season. I had the exact situation as the OP during a MS championship game. During a free throw by V1, two home students came out of the stands, under the basket about 5 feet off the base line, jumping around and waving their arms. The stands were another 5 feet behind them. By the time it was noticed, the shot was on its way. When the free throw was missed, we allowed the free thrower to re-shoot. Administration took care of it immediately.

Our decision may not be specifically supported by rule, but I am comfortable that we handled it appropriately. I would no call this before calling a T. I could not feel right about penalizing the players for a knucklehead student's actions. Now, if it happens a 2nd time...

I Wish I Were An Oscar Mayer Weiner ...
 

In my situation, the fan was not actively trying to interfere with play, he was actively trying to get back to his seat, and eat his hot dog. There's not a lot of space between the sideline boundary, and the bleachers, in some middle school gymnasiums, especially with cheerleaders on the sidelines.

You Deserve A Break Today ...
 

True story. Girls varsity game at a small rural school, with a great concession stand. Middle of second period, girl falls, and hurts her elbow (turned out to be dislocated). She's screaming in pain. We send both teams to their benches, and the trainer calls an ambulance. This school being way out in the sticks, it took the ambulance about fifteen minutes to get there. Both teams are on their benches, my partner, and I, are on the visitor's bench, and the girl is still on the court, screaming in pain. The EMT's finally get the girl loaded up onto a gurney, and my partner is nowhere to be found. Finally, he comes wandering back from the concession stand, with a hot dog in his hand.

Our MS CYO rules specifically permit awarding new FTs for spectator behavior during a FT. My son' steam benefitted from a call in the playoffs with 10 seconds left down by 2 ....

I would suggest never utilizing the "tech a fan" rule on an individual fan. How could you know he was actually a fan of that team versus just dressing in their colors? Unlikely I know but I believe that rule is meant for more obvious acts like throwing TP on the court. Eject the fan and reissue the FT if missed.