Two wierd plays

[rainmaker]

Originally posted by Jurassic Referee

You save the T's for the cases where a player obviously gets an unfair advantage by the act of going OOB.On defense,an example might be a defender going OOB to avoid a legal screen set right on the endline,and then coming back in to block a shot or steal the ball.On offense,the play in the casebook where the player throws the ball in,and then goes down the endline OOB before coming back in and spotting up for a shot when they swing the ball around to him. You warn if you can,but if they do gain an advantage,a warning isn't good enough imo.You gotta call it,or you're screwing the other team by allowing an illegal play and the accompanying illegal advantage.

I agree with you, and that was the picture that was conjured up in my mind when I first read the play. Later, I realized that the other interpretation -- of someone stepping out of bounds to receive a pass -- was probably closer to the real situation, and thus the violation is the better call.

Looking back at the original description of this play, I can't quite tell what was happening. Depending on what happend next, after what Nevadaref described, either call could make sense. He doesn't say whether there was some good defense in the key, waiting to intercept the pass. Or whether A2 stepped back in bounds and received the pass, or whether he stayed out of bounds and received the pass, or what.

Hey, Nevada, fill us in, will ya?

[Edited by rainmaker on Oct 9th, 2003 at 10:46 PM]