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
The rulebook provisions of the 3 second rule is that a player cannot be in the lane for 3 seconds or more while his teamates have established team possession in their frontcourt.
If a player has either foot on the edge or line which defines yhe lane, he is in the lane.
There is an interesting exception to a 3 count. A player can legally be in the lane for as much as 6 seconds as follows: he is in the lane for a count if 2 and receives the ball, the holds the ball for 2 counts and dribbles - he gets another 2 count. Then he must shoot .
But to your point, most experienced officials rarely call 3 seconds. You see newer referees at freshman games call it way too often. Most officials are taught that 3 seconds should only be called if and only if it results in an undue advantage. Thr principal is called Advantage Disadvantage. This means that when it is called it is ususlly a late call.. for example a player is camped out and normally when the shot goes up the 3 seconds restrictions are lifted, but if that player gets the rebound because he was there for more than 3 seconds the official should call it then.
A good preventative officiating move is for the official to shoo players out of the paint verbally to avoid having to call 3 secs too often.
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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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A player is allowed to fumble the ball after gaining possession, and then dribble if he has not dribbled heretofore. BUT, the fumble has to be unintentional in the eyes of the official.
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The placement of a throw in after a time out is the same as the placement after a violation or a non-shooting foul. The spot should be perpendiclar to nearest sideline oe endline. So imagine a diagonal line from the elbow of the free throw line to the corner of the sideline/endline. If the ball was on the sideline area of that line then find a perpendicular line to the sideline. If it is on the other side of the diagonal then the ball goes to the endline. If the ball was in the paint, then it is taken out on the endline at the closest line of the paint - never on the endline directly under the basket.
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I would consider it a simultaneous violation. If there was to be a second free throw, then shoot it. If not, go to the alternating possession arrow.
However, if the opponent committed the violation BEFORE the free throw shooter released the ball then the first is penalized and the second is ignored.
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The defender always has the rights to his vertical space whether he hits the ball or not. Based on how you describe it, I would see it as a good block, no foul.
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If NFHS rules are being enforced, leaving the bench to join the fight is a flagrant technical foul resulting in immediate player ejection. However, if more than one player from a team leaves the bench the other team shoots only 2 technical shots even though multiple players are ejected from the game. In Illinois all the ejected players are also suspended for the next game. AAU and other league rules may differ.
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