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Originally Posted by Y2Koach
Hello all.
Just a quick intro about myself, I am a High School Boys basketball coach in California, a rules junky that is known to pull out the rulebook i keep in my pocket during games when officials are obviously not interested in doing their job and i am forced to assist them. anyways, i love this message board, its good to see officials that care about their craft and i wish that more officials in the association in my area cared as you guys do.
and on to the georgetown travel
I just happened to be helping out a coaching friend of mine a few days before the georgetown game, and the exact "travel" situation came up during one of the drills. It was my assertion that it is NOT traveling, but since 90% of the refs in our area would call it travel, that move should be used with caution. It took me the rulebook as well as a physical demonstration to convince the other coach that it is NOT traveling but i am not sure if he is convinced... anyways...
when i saw the play on TV, I was convinced it was NOT traveling, and that the TV commentators (on several networks) were wrong. It bothered me for hours, as they kept going back to these commentators saying how the game ended in controversy over an "obvious travel". What bothered me even more was that it seemed by the time the evening editions of sports center came on, someone had informed the commentators about the rule, and to save face, they started saying that it was the "shuffling and lifting" of the pivot foot prior to the move that was the travel in question, and had zoomed in angles to illustrate what they "really meant"
So im on espn.com and I see this quote from a JAY BILAS column:
"Take a Walk to the Rulebook: I was in San Jose for the West Regional, so I watched the Georgetown-Vanderbilt game in the East Regional from afar. When Jeff Green hit the game-winning shot for the Hoyas, I did not believe that he traveled. When I heard different commentators from the different networks say with a great degree of certainty that Green had walked and the officials had missed it, I disagreed.
What Green did was a legal move and is, in fact, taught by many coaches. Green did a simple step-through move that is used in up-and-under moves and in the use of a hook shot, and is legal. I went to the Rule Book, to Rule 4, Article 66, Section 4(a), which states that once a player establishes his pivot foot, the pivot foot may leave the floor as long as it is not brought back to the floor before the ball is released. Green established his right foot as his pivot foot, pivoted, and went up for the shot off his left foot. All of that was completely legal under the rules.
It may have looked like a traveling violation to some, but it was not. When such a move is called as a travel, most coaches argue to the officials that it was a missed call.
The only argument regarding the violation that has any merit, in my judgment, is the view that Green moved his right pivot foot well before he got into his move. However, that was only visible super close-up and in slow motion. It was nearly impossible to see in real time.
I have heard some say the officials couldn't call a walk in that situation because the players are supposed to decide the outcome of the game that late in the game. I disagree. If Green had walked and it was called, the players would have decided it. But Green did not walk. What he did was a legal move under the rules. Not everyone, including me, knows the rules as well as they perhaps should, but the officials generally do. I think they got it right in the Georgetown-Vanderbilt game."
just thought i should share this with you officials that care about your craft. Although this tidbit did not get as much attention as the "georgetown vanderbilt game ends in controversy, sports center coming up" headlines, it is good to see a member of the media point out the facts.
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