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
Let me preface my answer by reminding you that I am an advocate of the Advantage Disadvantage philosophy of officiating basketball. This philosophy advocates not stopping play to call a foul or a violation unless that action causes a change in the balance of the defense/offense posture.
So, I tended to call very few 3 seconds in varsity basketball. For me it was usually a late call, as in a player is camped in the lane and gets the rebound, I would call a late 3 seconds call. If he didn't get the rebound play on. But since play goes so fast, premptive officiating would suggest warning the player to get out of the lane before having to make an advantage/disadvantage decision.
This is controversial in 2 ways: 1) you are right that at the varsity level players should not be "coached" by the ref's, and 2) not everyone believes in advantage/disadvantage.
I would warn a player once to stop him from camping out in there, but I am an advocate of advantage disadvantage officiating.
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Was it the Michigan State player? If it is the play I was looking at it was a close call, but I probably would have called traveling.
So here is the play: A player catches the ball with both feet in the air. Going backwards the left foot comes down first (it will be the pivot). Then the right foot comes down beyond the 3 point arc. He lifts the left (pivot) foot. At this point he is ok if he alights or stays on the right foot and then passes or shoots. As soon as his left foot touches the floor or he hops on his right it is traveling.
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No it is not a proper box out. Boxing out is when a defender moves legally to a space that an opponent is trying to get to, thereby boxing him out. Using your arm to create space (whether by the offense or defense) is a foul.
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If two fouls of the same kind occur simultaneously by opposite teams the free throws offset and are not shot. In your example the fouls are different and are administered as they occurred. So clear the lanes, shoot the one and one. Go to the other end and shoot the 2 Ts. Ball out of bounds at half court.
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There is no provision for a violation or foul for talking or shouting. There is only one way it might be construed a foul and that is behavior that is considered unsportsmanlike. But to me, shouting "ball, ball, ball" would not rise to the level of unsportsmanlike.
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A defender has every right to hold his ground as long as he obtains the position legally. He has NO obligation to give ground or soften a collision once he obtains initial legal guarding position.
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OK, here is what I saw. He gets the ball while both feet are planted. So either foot can be the pivot foot. He lifts up his left foot which makes his right foot his pivot foot. he then steps onto his left foot and lifts his right foot. At this point he cannot move or slide his left foot nor can he touch the right foot on the floor. From here he must shoot or pass. Looks to me like a legitimate basketball move and no violation.
It is hard to understand this fact about traveling: it is not illegal to lift your pivot foot per se. If you could not lift your pivot foot how could you ever shoot a traditional layup?
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