Basketball Ref, I appreciate your input and I like the way you cite your information from the casebook. I think of this play from the point of view of the rebounder, who jumps to get the rebound and while fading back if he contacted an opponent standing up then 99% of the time this would be an incidental play with no foul call. However, if he comes down on someone on the floor then he would most likely get his feet tangled up and fall to the floor. This is not right, in my opinion, to call a travel here and penalize the rebounder. Players lying on the floor is not part of the game of basketball. Likewise, players standing underneath the basket is not part of the game of basketball. I agree that your casebook citations support you, however, it is also in the college rule book/casebook that a player is allowed to draw a charge underneath the basket, but officials are taught by top college officials at camps and other places to call this a block. Not everything should be taken literally from the rulebook. Rules are very important and I study them often, but we have to apply our own common sense as well. For example the rule book says we can call a 3 second violation while the ball is in team control, but not player control but obviously if the ball is rolling around and is loose we would use common sense and not call 3 seconds here.
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eli roe
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