NCAA 9-3-1 interpretation assistance
 

Early in the 2nd half of last week's Kentucky v Vanderbilt game.

Kentucky in live possession of the ball, a Kentucky player intentionally ran out of bounds. The player dribbling the ball waited until the Kentucky player established position on the court, and passed it to him.

Violation of 9-3-1 or no? Was called a violation on the floor. The rule states it is a violation when a player "steps out of bounds under his own volition and then becomes the first player to touch the ball after returning to the playing court."

Is the intent of the rule to prevent this, or to prevent a player from having possession himself, going out of bounds with nobody else touching the ball, returning to the court and (re)obtaining possession?

Or is it to prevent both situations?

Thanks for your thoughts.



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The rule prevents a player from running out of bounds in order to get open to receive a quick pass.
If there is an intervening touch, then the NCAA rules committee feels that the defense has sufficient time to recover.

The latter.

And this is another poorly worded rule since the original dribbler was really the first to touch the ball after the OOB player returned. What they really meant is that the returning player can't be the next player to touch the ball after returning. It has to go to someone else first.

Thanks, very helpful. Replacing the word "first" with the word "next" would be a good addition, I think.

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