[IUgrad92]

A couple of terms that were stressed heavily this year in our association were 'gather' and 'habitual shooting motion'. I'm surprised I haven't seen any reference to those terms in this thread or maybe I just missed them. The player in this OP was definitely in his habitual shooting motion, which just means he had taken the initial actions in shooting the ball. That information is all that is needed by an official to determine awarding shots or not if a foul occurs after the habitual shooting motion has started.

I'll admit, at the beginning of the season, my though process was more 'old school' in the sense that a player had to actually shoot or attempt to shoot for me to award free throws, because what if the player passed the ball after the foul??? Somewhat similar to where AremRed is with his philosophy, but I bought in 100% to watching for the 'gather' and it made life a lot easier. Not one coach all season complained once I said the player had gathered the ball and was in his shooting motion at the time of the foul. It didn't matter if the player passed, stood still after contact, or whatever, at the time of the foul if the player had gathered the ball to begin his shooting process, we shot free throws.