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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No this move is not legal because even though the offensive player has the right to the vertical space once he has attained a legal position on the floor, he cannot initiate contact by slapping the opponents arm.
The defensive player can penetrate that vertical space but cannot make contact in that space. So, a defender can reach into the vertical space of the offensive player to try to steal the ball as long as there is no contact. But if the defender reaches into the vertical space and initiates contact it is a defensive foul.
But what if the offensive player initiates contact inside his legally obtained space? If for example, the offensive player jumps vertically and crashes into the defender - foul on the defender.
But what if the offensive player slaps the defender's hand? The offensive player caused the contact, and most likely it occurred outside the offensiive player's vertical space, so it is a foul on the offensive player for initiating contact.
I know that many coaches teach the dribbler to put up a bent arm as a barrier to the defender but when the dribbler initiates contact by pushing or slapping the defender it is a player control foul on the dribbler. Most often, the dribbler is NOT entitled to the space where the defender is reaching in. In my opinion, this is not called enough.
By the way, there is no defintion in the rule book of "reaching in". If reaching in was illegal, you could never steal the ball from a dribbler.
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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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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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If player A1 is in bounds and throws the ball which hits out of bounds player B1 the throw in is awarded to team A.
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Why couldn't he pick up the ball? Even after a dribble, a player can fumble the ball and recover it as long as it is accidental and there is no purposeful dribble. Having said that:
A player can box out anywhere on the court as long as he moves to a spot before the opposite team player moves toward that spot.
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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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