[Mregor]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

Young'uns: Back in ancient times, these four hash marks had a real purpose in high school games.

One was regarding a five second closely guarded count. If a dribbler was close to a five second closely guarded dribbling count violation he could get a new count by dribbling forward past the 28 foot hash mark extended. Under certain conditions, between holding and dribbling a ball handler could avoid a closely guarded violation for up to sixteen seconds (unlike today's twelve seconds).

Another was for delay of game. Under certain conditions, stalling offensive teams were required to move the ball past the 28 foot hash mark extended, and stalling defensive teams were required to come out and play defense (closely guarded) past the 28 foot hash mark extended.

There's a lot more to the ancient times delay of game rule. I'm sure that Mark T. DeNucci, Sr. will be moseying by shortly to give us all the details.

Ahh, the old forecourt and front court. The good old days.