Another travelling question

[rainmaker]

The thread below about travelling on the turn-around jumpshot prompts me to ask a related question: What about the dribbler who "gathers up" the ball too soon? I actually got nailed for calling this, by an evaluator who said "the cross-over dribble isn't always illegal." He didn't even see the extra step by the dribbler.

This player, in warm-ups, had the fastest, smoothest, most realiable dribble-drive-lay-up I've ever seen anywhere. And he pulled it off plenty in the game, too, but when there was a defender in the key, he lost some confidence and would scoop up the ball too soon, in effect taking an extra step. I called it three times in the first half. He asked very nicely about it at half-time, and didn't do it in the second half. I was impressed, and a little pleased with myself, but my partner thought I was seeing the play wrong and said he wouldn't have called it a travel. I see it a lot in boys and I wonder how I should be calling it. No one else seems too worried about it.