Fun With Held Ball Signals ...

[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

IAABO Make The Call Video

Was this correctly ruled a held ball? Did the officials allow the players enough time to secure possession or was the held ball ruled at the appropriate time? Did the official use the proper signal to indicate a held ball?

https://storage.googleapis.com/refqu...yOBFORbQ%3D%3D

Two choices: The ruling of a held ball is correct. The ruling is incorrect (more time is needed to make a proper judgment)

My comment: The ruling of a held ball is correct. Time has no impact on calling a held ball. A held ball occurs when opponents have their hands so firmly on the ball that control cannot be obtained without undue roughness. Both the Lead and Trail gave an incorrect held ball signal, forgetting to first stop the clock with an open hand.

Originally Posted by BillyMac

From Flickr.

I) Timing of Held Ball Call:

A) The timing of the Held Ball Call was good. Far too often, Game Officials will call a Held Ball too (with emphasis on "too") soon, especially in girls' (Jr. H.S. and H.S.) games with the excuse being they want to prevent rough play, which is a crock of horse manure.


II) Two-Step Held Ball Signal:

A) I am not in favor of the Two-Step Held Ball Signal which the NFHS adopted two years ago.

1) The only reason for the Two-Step Held Ball Signal is to allow a Game Official who has initially started to signal a Foul to change his/her her decision to a Held Ball in mid-stream (And I know from personal experience, ).


III) When the NFHS made the signaling change many veteran officials found it difficult to break the habit of using the old signal, Mark, Jr. will attest to that personally, .


IV) Free Throw and Rebounding Coverage:

A) Two-Person Crew Mechanics in General:

1) Two-Person Mechanics is really Three-Person Mechanics which is really, depending upon where the Ball is, consists of two different court coverage:

a) A Lead and a Center and no Trail.

b) A Lead and a Trail and no Center.

B) Free Throw Coverage in a Two-Person Crew:

1) Can be accurately described as a L and a C with no T.

C) Trail:

1) Personally, I would have liked to seen the T standing just above the FT Line Extended instead of 3ft above the Top of the Key Extended.

2) The T never closed down toward the End Line at least one step as W13 released her FTA. Instead, the T never moved from her spot on the Court. Not good.

3) Rebound After Unsuccessful Free Throw Attempt:
a) The long rebound was first contested in what is described as the "gray area" along the FT Line Extended on the Strong Side of the Court.

i) This "gray area" can result in double coverage by the L and the T.

b) The T should be the Game Official that has On Ball Coverage on the long rebound in this Play.

i) And as such should have been taking at least one step of not two steps toward the Ball.

D) Lead:

1) The L was approximately three feet off of the End Line which is good if he was three feet off of the FT Lane Extended (which is where he should have been) instead of the six feet off of the FT Lane Extended.

2) The L followed Ball out to the FT Line Extended on the Strong Side instead of watching the four Players (2 White and 2 Red) in the FT Lane directly in front of him.

E) Lead and Trail:

1) Ironically, once the Ball was contested by 1 Red (R1) Player and 2 White Players (W1 and W2) along the FT Line Extended the L was in position to see the Ball between R1 and W1 and W2, while the T's view of the Ball between R1 and W1 and W2 was blocked by W1 and W2, BUT I would bet that the L's view was blocked by R2.

2) The L started to signal a Held Ball before the T did, but not by much.

a) The L had the best view of the Ball between R1 and W1 and W2 making him the Primary Official responsible for On Ball Coverage. Therefore, the Held Ball became the L's call, and he should have moved along the End Line to get a better view of the Ball.

b) And because the T did not have a see-through of the Ball the T should have not have been signaling a Held Ball because she could not see the Ball.

c) The L's Held Ball Signal was a very lazy signal while the T's Held Ball Signal was more visible; both the L and the T should have been moving toward the Players involved in the Held Ball but neither did.

d) The T, because she was Opposite the Table looked to the Table to see the Direction of the AP Arrow and then visually signaled the direction of the AP Arrow: Correct mechanic.

e) The L, because he was Table Side should not have been looking at the Table to see the Direction of the AP Arrow because the T was already doing that and signaling the Direction of the AP Arrow.

3) The L's Held Ball Signal was at 0:01 of the 2nd QT.

a) There was no sound with the video and the Game Clock had gone to 0:00 we do not know if the Game Officials put 0:01 on the Game Clock or ended the 2nd QT with the Held Ball, meaning that White would start the 3rd QT with an AP Throw-in.


MTD, Sr.