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Here's the message I sent to the state office. Teams/names redacted:
I had a play last night I haven't ever seen in 20 years of officiating. I want to put the situation in writing and ask that if there isn't a definite ruling evident in the case book or rule book that the WIAA send the play to the NFHS for clarification. I will include my rule justification for my ruling as part of the play scenario.
Varsity boys. The score was 52-50, XXXXXXXXXX (Visitors) with 7.0 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter. XXXXXXXXX (Home) had scored and Visitors had the ball with the right to run the end line after a made basket, Home called time before the ball was at the disposal of the thrower-in.
After the timeout, I signaled that Visitors could inbound from anywhere along the end line (run the endline), blew my whistle, and handed the ball to the thrower-in. As I expected, the thrower in (A1) ran a set play and threw the ball to his teammate (A2) out of bounds.
Home's gym is very shallow on the baselines, with perhaps 2-3 feet between the endlines and the (padded) wall.
A1's pass hit/grazed the wall on the way to A2. A2 then passed the ball to A3 on the floor and A3 was fouled. It was not intentional and there was no deception as part of this.
I did not rule this a violation for the following reasons:
(1) Rule 9-2-2 directs us to 7-5-7 as the exception that allows A1 to give/pass the ball to A2.
(2) 7-5-7 only specifies that a teammate can replace another teammate in this situation as the thrower-in anywhere along the end line. This allows the pass.
(3) The pass is not a throw-in, it's merely A1 giving the ball to A2 for the throw-in (which is important, as if this was a pass that ended up on the court, it would be considered a throw-in and a violation per case book 9.2.2. Sit. A).
(4) 9.2.2 Sit D (case book) allows the thrower-in to bounce the ball on the out-of-bounds area before making a throw-in. If A1 had retrieved the ball after the made basket and bounced the ball off the wall to himself, I would not whistle this as a violation. As his pass to A2 is essentially the same thing (it's not a throw in, just A1 making the ball available to A2 for a throw in anywhere along the end line as per 7-5-7), I let it go. We'd allow the A1 to bounce the ball to A2 out-of-bounds - I didn't see how this was any different. Again 7-5-7 says nothing about A1 passing to A2 -- rather that it's not a violation for A1 to give the ball to A2 when the throwin can be made from anywhere along the end line due to a made basket (or defensive penalty).
OK, that's it. Obviously, the Home coach was not happy with the decision I made, but I gave him the exact reasoning I typed above (without rule references, of course, and more quickly).
I'm happy to be told that I was incorrect here, but that will require (to the best of my knowledge) a ruling not directly from a specific rule or case play unless I wasn't able to find one. So I request that you send this to your interpretors/experts and also request that unless they have a specific rule that covers this that you send it to the NFHS for clarification. I joked last night that this would be in the case book in 2 years, but now that I think about it, maybe it should be.
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