Survey Says ...

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by frezer11

21. Eliminating the jump ball at the beginning of the game. The visiting team would get first possession and the arrow would be set after legal inbounds. Disagree. Sorry Billy, I for one enjoy the tradition here.

Over the past decades, as the number of jump balls has decreased to almost none (compared to several (at three different circles) in games many years ago), officials just don't know the jump ball rules like they use to know them. Most officials (both tossers, and nontossers) just hope for the best, maybe catching a jumper tapping the ball on the way up, or catching the ball before the jump ball ends. Many officials have little understanding of what jumpers and nonjumpers can do before the toss, during the toss, and after the toss. I've heard very otherwise competent officials tell all ten players, "Don't move.", before tossing, and I've heard officials tell players that they can't stand behind an opponent when both are several (more than three feet) away from the circle.

We're only one, or two, jump balls a game from doing away with them all together, let's put the jump ball out of it's misery, it's the only humane thing to do.



Things Officials Should Probably Not Be Saying In A Game

"Hold your spots", said by the referee, or tosser, before the jump ball, is only rule based for some of the players. One exception to this rule, and there are others, is that players on the jump ball circle can move off the jump ball circle at any time: before the toss, during the toss, or after the toss.

"You can't stand behind him”, stated by the referee, or the umpire, before a jump ball, to a player who is directly behind an opponent, both whom are ten feet off the jump ball circle, is not rule based. The rule that players can’t stand behind, within three feet, of an opponent, only applies to players on, and within three feet of, the jump ball circle. Players farther back than that can stand wherever they want, as long as they get to that spot first.