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Old Thu May 29, 2008, 06:50pm
Back In The Saddle Back In The Saddle is offline
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An interrupted dribble occurs when the ball is loose after deflecting off the dribbler or after it momentarily gets away from the dribbler. There is no player control during an interrupted dribble. (NFHS)

Notice there are two independent clauses here: "the ball is loose after deflecting off the dribbler" and "after it momentarily gets away from the dribbler". They are separated by "or" which indicates that either situation is sufficient to qualify as an interrupted dribble. To argue that it's not an interrupted dribble because the ball didn't "[get] away from the dribbler" is to ignore the other clause.

In the OP is the ball not "loose after deflecting off the dribbler"? The ball is not being held by any player, and is loose in that sense. It's also not under the player's direct control since it did not go to the floor where it was clearly intended to go. In that sense it is loose too. Loose does not imply any specific or minimum distance from the dribbler. Nor does loose imply any duration. Deflecting does imply some amount of change in direction of the ball, but doesn't imply a minimum amount. However, I submit that in the OP the ball deflected roughly 180 degrees from its original path, which was toward the floor.

For my money, this is an interrupted dribble as the ball was loose after deflecting off the dribbler, even though the result of the deflection was nearly the same as if it had hit the floor and he was able to get it back under control and continue his dribble seemingly without missing a beat.
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