Quote:
Originally Posted by so cal lurker
Having a very tall center, my son's 8th grade team runs a play on jump balls with a player cutting to get to an open space for a long tip. The player does not line up on the circle, but stays at 5-10' off the circle. They've had a lot of success on this. In a recent game, however, a referee called a violation, ruling that he was not allowed to move until the ball was tipped. That's wrong, isn't it? I'm not too worried about a one-off mis-call, but if we're teaching a play that is properly a violation, we should change it.
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Back when I was coaching middle school basketball and we had a very tall player, I would put all four of my nonjumpers on the circle, instructing the player in front and to the right to my jumper to back off the circle at the very beginning of the toss and run toward our basket. The jumper would tap the ball forward and slightly to the right with some force and we would get a wide open right hand layup and go up two to zero.
After having a few officials calling this a violation, I always quietly and politely told both officials before every game that we were going to do this and reminded them that it was legal for players to back off the circle at any time, before, during, or after the toss.
"Hold your spots"? No such rule for
everybody.