[ChuckElias]

Jeremy, although I agree that a common sense approach is helpful, it seems to me that the common sense thing is to call what obviously happened. The ball was knocked out of the cylinder by the defender. I don't see how the official can ignore that. I see your point, that the BI was caused by the illegal action of an opponent, but I don't see how ignoring the obvious violation makes the situation better.

Suppose instead of touching the ball, the defender mistimed his jump and grasped the rim to keep from falling on an opponent. (Definitely no T, for the sake of argument.) Now the ball hits the rim while the defender is grasping it. Wouldn't you call BI in this situation? It's not the defender's "fault", he's just protecting himself. Nevertheless, the obvious violation can't be ignored.

Do you agree, or do you think I'm off-target?

Chuck