Had a game in a gym where the interior of the jump circle was painted a single, contrasting color and completely obscured the division line. Player dribbles from BC to FC and then back near where the line should have been. He almost certainly stepped on "the line" with his heel. I didn't call it because I didn't feel I could justify the call. Or, more correctly, I didn't feel that I could judge accurately every time it might happen, and I didn't want to set a precedent.

My question: should I have called it, since I'm pretty sure he was on/over the line by 3-4 inches? Or was I right to pass on this call?

The only precedent I can think of is that if there is no 3-point line painted on the floor, you don't have any 3 point shots. Even if you know the shooter was above the top of the key.

On the other hand, if the dribbler had crossed the line by 3 feet, I would have had to call it.

In this case it is strictly a judgement call. We see a few gyms painted like that here in La. If anyone wants to argue that call tell them in a nice way to fix the stripe.

Barry

You should remind the "game management" people that this situation is illegal, talk to your partner ahead of time and agree on how you're going to call it, and then be a little lenient. But only a very little.

The easiest solution is to get game management to lay some tape down- to connect the lines from either side of the logo. If they don't want to do that, just say "Hey,fine with me.Gotta report you,though, for having an illegal playing area".

bits, you should also report it to uhsaa so that they are aware of the facility that isn't compliant with the rules.

I talked with a veteran official who had a similar issue the other night down here in the valley. No shadow-line at midcourt and no 28' lines for the coaching box. Asked the home coach to fix the 28' line and he did, for his bench. Had to ask him to be a good sport and do it for the visitor too. He said he'd reported it to the state so that they were aware of which facility it was.

Thanks, Dougster. I'll pass that along to the arbiter, along with the annoyance of having people walking in and out of the coaches office while we're dressing...and leaving the door to the court standing open.

They always say "call the obvious"...

This doesn't seem too obvious to me. You can't call what you "think" you saw in this case. Unless it's "obvious" (clearly at least 1-2 feet) that they stepped into the backcourt, don't call it.

I reffed in a gym like this not too long ago. A real pain.