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JR, you are certainly entitled to your opinion and I respect that. I wonder how others on this board feel about this play. I'll just wait for more responses and see who they agree with.
In addition, I can relate a story to you from a game I watched in last year's Christmas tournament in Las Vegas. (Rankings are from USA Today's national HS boys poll)#8 Oak Hill was playing #24 Cheyenne HS (from Vegas) with time winding down in the 4th quarter. Cheyenne had the ball down one. They were in a spread offense with their point guard dribbling near the division line waiting for the clock to run down far enough so they could take the last shot of the game. Oak Hill was letting them employ this strategy and was sitting back inside the three-point line applying absolutely no defensive pressure at all.
With about 15 seconds to go the point guard standing all by himself near half court palmed the ball. The trail official called it. Cheyenne had to foul, Oak Hill made their free throws and eventually won by 6.
The tournament director and the assignor for Las Vegas HS ball and some other officials who worked the state tourney all agreed that this was a terrible decision by the trail official. Each of them told me that in the absence of defensive pressure, the kid could stick the ball down his shorts and they wouldn't call it. General argument: If the defense doesn't do anything to deserve the ball, why should an official stop the game and simply give it to them?
This is why I don't call that travel.
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