[bgtg19]

During a girls varsity game this past week, the following situation happened. I'm trying to (a) confirm the location of the throw in and (b) locate the "evidence" that my understanding is right (or wrong).

Team A scores a basket. B1 picks up the ball, goes out of bounds along the endline, and starts looking for a teammate to whom she can throw the ball. Not seeing anyone open, and with the count approaching five, B1 throws a pass out to the sideline in front of Team A's bench. Ball does not touch another player before hitting out of bounds.

I was the old lead (when A had the ball), now new trail who was counting along the endline. The ball was thrown out of bounds on my sideline (two-person crew). I signaled the violation and pointed to the spot where B1 had let go of the throw-in attempt as the spot where Team A would be awarded its throw in. My partner blew his whistle and came to me. This is a paraphrase of our conversation (this language is a little more precise than the words we used): Partner says that the ball should be put in play in front of Team A's bench on the sideline because the throw-in violation took place during a live ball. He said that you only go back to the original throw-in spot when it is a dead ball throw in. No, I said, that's not right. He insisted that, because the clock had not stopped, we should be putting the ball in play along the sideline. I don't think the clock running has anything to do with this, I said, and all throw ins are "live ball" throw ins once the ball is at the disposal of the thrower so I'm pretty sure that the live ball/dead ball distinction isn't the key here. In any event, I continued, we're putting the ball in play here (along the endline) because we've got to keep this game moving and we'll try to figure out later who is right.

We put the ball in play along the endline where B1 had thrown the ball.

After the game, I grabbed my rule book and the only relevant rule I could find said that (and I apologize for not having my rule book with me to give a citation or more precise language) a thrower shall throw the ball directly onto the court so that it touches another player on the court. It is a throw in violation to NOT do that. My partner and I couldn't find anything to do with live ball/dead ball distinctions. I told my partner that I still think I'm right but that I thought there was probably a case play that cleared it up. After I got home, I couldn't find a case play in the new case book.

Although I am pretty sure that I got it right, I certainly want to know if I did not. Also, for both my benefit and my partner's (he's not a regular partner, but I did tell him that I'd let him know if I found something more definitive), does anyone know the best source for pointing to why I was right/wrong.