PF AND IRS REVIEW & PROTOCOL

After a defensive rebound, Red 00 hits White 21's head, with his upper arm as he pivots. Even when pivoting is a normal basketball action; a player with the ball has the right to pivot, pass the ball, try to dribble, or make a shoot inside his own cylinder however, if an extended arm hits an opponent's face while the forearms are not vertical, this is classed as an excessive, hard contact foul, that is not within the spirit of the game, therefore an UF C2 should be called.

The initial decision by the Lead referee, PF, is an incorrect decision: as the Lead has the OA on the play, his initial decision should have been UF C2.

Regarding the IRS protocol, CC doesn't correctly follow all the steps: firstly, he didn't use the headset until the end to communicate the final decision, which is confirmed by the calling referee, but he never communicated how the game should be resumed. In addition, his wording for the final decision PF was: "well, he hit him on the head, so we stay with the normal". This means the review is conclusive, but in this case, it was not.

I would also like to ask you to take into consideration that this is still early in the game, and we will need consistency on the same or almost the same play situations until the end of the game. With this incorrect decision, the standard we set is also incorrect.

This is not the first time this season that Referees haven't had at their disposal, the requested camera angle from the TV production. In these cases, our CC must be polite, but assertive, and clearly ask their counterpart on the TV production to confirm that they cannot provide the play situation from the requested camera angle, and then our CC should explain, as in this situation, that the review is inconclusive and therefore we stay with the initial decision.

If we don't follow this protocol correctly, we are not creating a good Referee image. Our clear communication and explanation will allow those following the game on TV to fully understand what, and why, we have based our decision on.

This playing situation shows, once more, we still have some deficiencies in the BCL IRS system.