Rules Question

[Husky fanatic]

At my grand daughter’s game last night a girl from the opposing team stole the ball and raced toward the wrong basket and fumbled the ball out of bounds under the basket. Her teammates and the referees became confused and her teammates rushed back on defense, the wrong basketball . The ref’s handed the ball to my grand daughter’s team. My grand daughter took the inbounds pass took two steps and layed it in with a smile. The ref’s decided this was their mistake and denied the basket. Were they correct? I have seen wrong way baskets before and they count, but I have never seen this situation before.

 

[TCC Kid]

At my grand daughter’s game last night a girl from the opposing team stole the ball and raced toward the wrong basket and fumbled the ball out of bounds under the basket. Her teammates and the referees became confused and her teammates rushed back on defense, the wrong basketball . The ref’s handed the ball to my grand daughter’s team. My grand daughter took the inbounds pass took two steps and layed it in with a smile. The ref’s decided this was their mistake and denied the basket. Were they correct? I have seen wrong way baskets before and they count, but I have never seen this situation before.

If I didn't get lost in the wording--it sounds like a good decision.

 

[The deacon]

At my grand daughter’s game last night a girl from the opposing team stole the ball and raced toward the wrong basket and fumbled the ball out of bounds under the basket. Her teammates and the referees became confused and her teammates rushed back on defense, the wrong basketball . The ref’s handed the ball to my grand daughter’s team. My grand daughter took the inbounds pass took two steps and layed it in with a smile. The ref’s decided this was their mistake and denied the basket. Were they correct? I have seen wrong way baskets before and they count, but I have never seen this situation before.

As I believe you've described it, fanatic, the basket should count. However, I'm guessing this was a youth game and the refs probably were just trying to make the opposing player feel better at the moment.

I ran youth leagues for many years and generally instructed our refs, who were usually high school kids, to follow the rules but bend them a bit when instruction was more important than any particular call. Perhaps this was one of those occasions?

 

[VaConnFan11]

The basket should count. What mistake did the ref make?

The coaches should have instructed the team(s) where to be.

When I refed youth (8-12) and something like this happened, I would give both teams the opportunity to be on the correct end of the court before putting the ball in play. It does happen more times that you think.

 

[Plebe]

Was this an NCAA game?

 

[Husky fanatic]

As I believe you've described it, fanatic, the basket should count. However, I'm guessing this was a youth game and the refs probably were just trying to make the opposing player feel better at the moment.

I ran youth leagues for many years and generally instructed our refs, who were usually high school kids, to follow the rules but bend them a bit when instruction was more important than any particular call. Perhaps this was one of those occasions?

High School JV game

 

[The deacon]

High School JV game

Oh, my gosh! Oh, well, we know officiating isn't that great at the collegiate level, so why would expect it to be at that level. As long as your granddaughter came out of it understanding what happened, and that she did what she should have done..

 

[LwrcasefaN]

Should count. Bigger concern would be how the entire team gets that confused.

 

[Forego]

I haven’t been this confused since Muchie ran around the bases in reverse order.

 

[trisailin]

Officiating crew: Dee Kantner, Dennis DeMayo, Maj Forsberg

 

[my2cents]

I was playing in a game in grammar school ( many years ago) and I had to block a shot of my teammate who was shooting at the wrong basket.

 

[oldude]

Many, many years ago I used to referee girls youth league games (10 and under). If I called every single foul, the games would devolve into a continuous parade to the foul line, and just about everyone would foul out. The worst part was that some of the girls would look like they were going to cry when I called a foul on them. I would try to console them by telling them that they were, “playing really hard.”

 

[BRS24]

High School JV game

Watching my g-sons play U10 soccer, there's a lot of instruction from refs, do overs on bad throw ins, etc, however when you get to U12, there's no do over. When I first read the post, even if it was a youth game, I wondered why they would deny the basket, then seeing it was JV, lordy.

 

[LwrcasefaN]

Many, many years ago I used to referee girls youth league games (10 and under). If I called every single foul, the games would devolve into a continuous parade to the foul line, and just about everyone would foul out. The worst part was that some of the girls would look like they were going to cry when I called a foul on them. I would try to console them by telling them that they were, “playing really hard.”

 

[oldude]

My favorite movie scene of all time!!!

 

[Huskee11]

If the ref was quick thinking, which sounds unlikely, he could have called traveling and solved it that way.

I had two CYO teammates make wrong way baskets. One was a third quarter ending buzzer beater.

 

[Plebe]

I don't know if this is a “rules” question per se. I suspect it's more of a procedural guideline that in the event of confusion by either or both teams as to which basket is whose, the refs are supposed to clarify this and remind the teams at the next dead ball. If as you describe the refs themselves were confused, they probably felt it was their failure not to get it straightened out on the dead ball.

But who knows. My experience and observations are that officiating in subvarsity high school games is roughly equivalent to rec league refereeing.

 

[Viet Vet]

This was high school, not CYO/grade/middle school. At the high school level the refs' job is to administer the game according to the rules, not to coach. There are people on the respective team benches whose job it is to advise/train/educate their players to the intricacies of the game. They are known as Coaches.

I reffed (long ago retired) high school in New Haven County. If I tried "advising/guiding, etc" a player, I typically heard (often in much more colorful terminology), "you ref, I'll coach."