Rndballref
20 Years Experience
Chicago, IL
Male, 60
For twenty years I officiated high school, AAU and park district basketball games, retiring recently. For a few officiating is the focus of their occupation, while for most working as an umpire or basketball referee is an avocation. I started ref'ing to earn beer money during college, but it became a great way to stay connected to the best sports game in the universe. As a spinoff, I wrote a sports-thriller novel loosely based on my referee experiences titled, Advantage Disadvantage
I certainly encourage you to report this. Most people officiate because they love the game, and if you love the game you have a duty to do anything in your power to advance the avocation of refereeing. I suggest you find out who ran the AAU tournament and voice your concerns. Because of your background, meaning you have training and experience and do not appear to be simply a biased, ticked off untrained parent, the AAU tournament director should be willing to tell you who the assigner of the officials was for the tournament and you should contact him/her directly.
I think most states would not allow an official complaint at the state licensing level because AAU tournaments are not normally state sanctioned contests even though they only hire "patched state officials".
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There is no provision in the mechanics or rule books for NFHS. In fact, although one official is designated as the "referee" and the other two are "umpire 1" and "umpire 2", the referee is not enpowered to overrule the others. Here's how I handled this: In the pre-game I asked my partners to agree to this. If they think I got the call wrong, approach me and tell me what you saw, and I will decide whether to overrule myself based on your input. That way, we could undue a really bad missed call, but if I passed on a call for my own reasons (advantage disadvantage for example) I could ignore my partner's input. Also, if I changed my call I could better explain to a coach why it was reversed. Most of the people I worked with agreed to use this system.
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The referee (as opposed to the other officials) has the responsibility to decide matters upon which the timer and scorekeeper disagree. Furthermore, "the referee shall make decisions on any points not specifically covered in the rulebook."
There is no explicit provision in the rule book to address the situation you describe. So, the referee has to decide what would be consistent with the intent of the rulebook.
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No, the points should not be cancelled because the free throw ended "when it is certain the try was unsuccessful". The points were scored after the free throw ended, but before the error was recognized. When you are able to correct an error, "points scored, consumed time and additional activity, which shall occur prior to the recognition of an error shall not be nullified.
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What's the MOST trashed you've ever found a hotel room?
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Actually, a dribble ends when you put two hands on the ball. But even if you have not dribbled already, putting two hands on the ball on the floor is normally called double dribble.
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After a made basket, or after a timeout after a made basket the team with the ball can pass it from one out of bounds player to another, and then throw it in bounds (along the endline only). Here's the play:
Team B is pressing with no defender on the out of bounds thrower in player A1. A2 is on the other side of the paint but he is guarded by B1. A1 has the ball out of bounds. A2 steps out of bounds leaving the defender B1 no one to guard. A1 passes the ball to A2 who is out of bounds. A1 steps in bounds and receives the pass from A2.
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It is not a rule, but rather it is a mechanic perscribed in the NFHS Handbook. It used to be that the trailing referee would hand the ball to the free throw shooter for the first attempt and the lead (on the endline) would administer the rest of the free throws. Maybe ten years ago, it was changed so that the proper mechanic is for the lead official administer all free throws from the baseline. Most referees cannot advance if they do not follow the perscribed mechanics. Most importantly, mechanics set a consistent way of working a game, so that you can easily work with people you have never been assigned with, and secondly, following perscribed mechanics sets a professional expectation for coaches and assignment chairpersons to evaluate (in addition to judgement, hustle, and rules knowledge).
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