I must admit I generally catch a little crap when I make a carry call... I tend to believe that it is not because the call is wrong but it is because very few others in my association call it.
There are dribblers/guards that technically carry the ball with nearly every single dribble. Coming down the court all alone, no defense, and he's palming the ball - you can't call that.
I feel it has got to be based on the Tower philosophy of advantage disadavantage.
If the dribbler, in the act of an offensive drive around a properly positioned defender, commits a carry, I call it.
The easy one for me is the move my JV basketball coach taught me 25 years ago. The dribbler with the ball well out to the right side of his body, facing the defender, catches a dribble that is coming straight up from the floor and then spins his body on his left foot, and now pushes the ball stright back down to the floor, pivots now on the right foot, and continues with a legal dribble into the left hand. That 4 to 8 foot horizontal movement of the ball made on the initial spin requires that the ball was caught and carried. VIOLATION!
Horizontal movement of the ball cannot just suddenly end - the laws of physics and momentum don't allow it, UNLESS the ball has been caught and carried.
The other very common violation is the NBA pause cross-over thingamabob. Dibbler is coming fast near the 3-point line and the dribbler pauses with the ball at the upper most position as the dribbler appears that he is going to stop or pass, defender comes up quickly to defend these possible actions only to have the dribbler now cross-over and continue his dribble leaving the defender behind. This one requires concentration because it is not the body motion (the appearance of I'm going to stop or pass) that creates the carry it is the hand and its position on the ball. Is the ball caught? - and generally you will see the hand go from a position of on top of the ball to one nearly completely underneath the ball, and then back to one on the side of the ball to initiate the cross-over dribble. That pause is the time to see what goes on with the hand and the ball. Likely, it is another violation.
The allowances that we see on TV... I want to say have trickled down to high school but it has come much faster than a trickle.
To date I'm sticking to my guns and calling the carry. Howl all you want, Monkey.
