Commissioner explains rule on technical-foul call

When the Calais boys basketball team went from almost-certain winners to stunned losers in Saturday night’s state Class C championship game in the space of 1.4 seconds, they learned a lesson in the most painful possible manner.

“You couldn’t dream that up. That’s a coach’s nightmare,” said Bangor boys coach Roger Reed.

The “nightmare” situation occurred just before 11 p.m. at the Augusta Civic Center. The Blue Devils led 47-46, had possession of the ball, and only had to inbound the ball and run out the clock to bring a gold ball back to Calais.

A Calais player then ran out of bounds, back in, and then out again. Dexter’s Doug Burdin, a Central Maine official who now lives in the Augusta area and was one of three officials working the game, called a technical foul on the player for violating Rule 10 of the player technicals section in the National Federation of State High School Associations basketball rule book.

“It’s a case where a rule is a rule is a rule,” said Maine Basketball Commissioner Peter Webb. “He not only left the court once, but he did it twice. I’m sure after seeing it the first time, [the referee] was even more clued into that.”

Section 3 of the rule, which covers fouls and penalties under player technicals, reads as follows: “The player shall not leave the court for an unauthorized reason.” It provides the following penalty: a technical foul on the violator plus two foul shots and possession of the ball for the opposing team.

As a result, Jay hit both foul shots to take a 48-47 lead and then inbounded the ball without incident as time ran out. Calais fans were understandably shocked.

Webb, who has been involved with officiating for 40 years and is the president of the International Association of Approved Basketball Officials, said the rule is there to allow teams on defense to have a fair opportunity to defend the team with the ball.

“The intent is to keep teams from shuttling three or four kids out of bounds to keep the other team from knowing who’d inbound the ball. In that case, that boy going out of bounds drew a defender with him who might normally have been back to try and steal the pass,” Webb explained. “This way, the defender has a fair chance to know where his man is.”

The rule applies only to possessions after dead-ball situations like timeouts or passes out of bounds. Having more than one player out of bounds or moving along the baseline with the ball while out of bounds is only permissible after an awarded or made field goal or free throw.

The first reaction from many fans who watched the game or heard about it was something like “How can you make a call like that in that situation?” Even some coaches reacted that way.

“At first I was disgusted because I figured how can you make a call like that?” said Camden Hills boys Hart. “But the more I thought about it, and hearing that the kid did it twice, it makes it hard not to make that call.”

“I’ve got to believe there’s not any official in the world who wants to make a call like that.”

As far as postgame reaction from fans who say the penalty is too harsh, Webb and some area coaches offered thoughts on that line of reasoning.

“I don’t think the penalty’s too stiff. I just think we have to do better at teaching the kids,” said Reed. “I guess my feeling is there has to be a penalty. The game requires that people can guard other players. If there were no penalties, you couldn’t very well play the game.”

Webb agrees.

“An official cannot set aside or ignore a rule. They’re there for a reason,” he said. “One of the best analogies is like the intentional foul. That seems like a stiff penalty to the defensive team, but then again, if you don’t rule it intentional, it’s a very stiff penalty for the other team.

“When you start diverting from the rules, the purpose of the game is gone. If you let the rules go, then there would be anarchy. Rules and officials, whether we like it or not, are integral parts of the games.”

The rule itself isn’t as obscure as some people may have thought. Reed is aware of the rule. In fact, it came up in a roundabout way during a practice two weeks ago.

“We were worried about teams defending us with a triangle-and-two and one kid asked me if he could run out of bounds to lose a defender, and I said ‘No you can’t,'” said Reed. “You can’t do that to lose people. It’s just like it is in football.”

Looking for at least one good bounce from all this deflating subject matter? Hart may have come up with just the thing.

“You know, we talk about unique game situations like that all the time, but I can honestly say that has never come up,” Hart said. “I have a feeling, though, that it just may come up in our drills and stuff next year.”

Now when Hart thinks of that play, he also thinks of the derivation of John Bradford’s famous quote: “There but for the grace of God go I.”

“Yeah,” said Hart. “I think everybody has to be thinking that way now because boy, what a tough way to lose a game like that … Man!”