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
Backcourt violation is the correct call because a player who catches the ball while in the air is considered to be in the court position from where they last touched the court. For example, if a player is out of bounds and leaps up, as soon as the player touches the ball it should be whistled dead on an out of bounds violation.
In your question if an offense player leaps from the backcourt to touch a ball which has been established in his team's front court it is a backcourt violation. Two exceptions to this rule: 1) on a throw-in, a player can jump from either side of the centerline, catch the throw in and land on the opposite side, and 2) a defensive player who leaps from his backcourt to intercept a ball which came from his front court (which was in possession of the offense before the interception).
I never had to call a game a forfeit. If a team was late, I tried to work with the athletic director to understand why the visitors are late, and what a reasonable start time might be. The rule book calls for a technical foul toul to be called if the coach has not submitted the roster and designated the starters no later than 10 minutes before start time. Again, I recommend that no official invokes this rule. Once a team was stuck in Chicago traffic and my partner told the coach when they arrived 45 minutes late that the game would start with a T. Horrible mistake.
In NFHS rules each technical is 2 free throws and the ball. If the official awarded 4 free throws then I assume 2 technicals were called.
I am not an expert on AAU rules but common sense would tell anyone to avoid officiating your son's game in competitive play. It would be different if it was a "house" league, but this is inappropriate for traveling basketball.
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When I umped little league baseball, there were times when I admonished a player directly - most often a pitcher for disrespectful body language in protest (slamming his mitt after a call four call, shaking his head purposefully when not getting a strike called, etc). Depending on how grievous the infraction determined my intensity.
One time while umping a 14 year old tournament game a pitcher was trying to get strike calls for balls 2 inches off the plate. After watching his demonstrations a few times, I stopped the game and took three paces toward the mound. I said loud enough for all to hear, "pitcher, you are not as good as Greg Maddox and I will not give in to your pitches off the plate. I suggest you challenge the hitters with strikes, or at least stop your sophomoric demonstrations. Or I can solve this for you and throw you out of the game". The coach came out to talk to me and instead of protesting he thanked me for humbling this young man.
In general, in basketball no good comes from arguing or negatively interacting with the crowd or the players. Mature refs avoid this.
The rule book does not prohibit tossing the ball to the ref, nor does it prohibit a player from talking to the ref...yet if either is done in an unsportsnanlike way it could be a technical. If you slam the ball to protest a call most refs will call a t. So it goes to the judgemeny of the ref as to whether an action is unsportsmanlike.
If, in the opinion of the referee the player started the "habitual movement to shoot at the basket" and is fouled it is a shooting foul even if the player cannot complete the shot or dumps the ball off.
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