Just before play resumed for the second half of a frosh girls' game, Team A coach wanted to give me a heads up on an out-of-bounds play she intended to run under her own basket if the opportunity arose:

Immediately after the ball was at the disposal of A1, A2 (while still in bounds) would walk toward the spot and announce, "No, I'm supposed to take it out."

The defense would supposedly relax for a moment while A1 passed to A2 under the basket for an easy two.

I told the coach such a play would be unsportsmanlike and would result in a T. She didn't run it.

At the time, I wasn't certain if I was correct or not. Still not sure.

What's the ruling?

Sven

running out of bounds or leaving the court for any unauthorized reason you could assess a indirect technical foul under NCAA rules..i don't know about NFHS but what you did sounds ok to me.

keep smiling
SH

Sounds a bit unethical however had the coach not explained it to me and it happened I don't think I would call anything-sounds kind of clever -a little like you might expect from the Trotters.

SH- You may want to re-read the post. Sven was very specific that A2 did not go OOB.

Sven- If you have already given the ball to A1 for the throw-in, tehn it's up to B to know the rules and not fall for this. IF you haven't given the ball to A1, then you shouldn't, as A2 has indicate that she wants to make the throw-in. Whether she really does or not is inmaterial. Don't administer the throw-in.

But there's nothing here that merits an unsportsmanlike technical foul.

Bsktbalref is exactly right!!!

Once you hand the ball to A1, you would start your visable 5 second count. If the defense relaxes while you are doing this, that's their problem.

After all, you wouldn't take the ball back from A1 to give it to A2, would you?

That is kinda bad you told her that.
Oh, well, live and learn.

you learn from your mistakes people...

After reading the replies, I took another look at the definition of an unsportsmanlike foul, which "...consists of unfair, unethical or dishonorable conduct..." (4-19-13) as well as the examples of unsportsmanlike acts. (10-3-8)

I must agree that a technical would have been inappropriate in the circumstance described. The play seems to fall more into the "gamesmanship" category. Not really severe enough to warrant penalty.

Who knows? The play might have worked at this level.
(Sorry, Coach. It won't happen again.)

Thanks for the feedback.

Sven

If that play is considered poor gamesmanship and unsporting,
then, by golly, we should start penalizing for faking a pass left and dribbling right. Sheesh!
mick

How is that play any different most of the inbounds plays under your own basket? Most of these are done to confuse, fool, deceive, etc. the defense and are NOT unsportsmanlike.

Why did the coach bother give you a heads up? If they ran the play legally, there should be no reason to bring it to your attention.

A couple years ago, in the off season,i worked a girls game. They ran this play and it worked. However these were 13-15 yr olds. It might work in fr. game. I agree no T.

I have coached 4th - 6th grade girls for the past several years. We have run that play 3 or four times a season in an effort give the girls who don't have much ability the opportunity to score. We also ran several other trick plays for the same reason. The play design worked about 80% of the time. Unfortunately we never could get the ball through the hoop.

I feel as though I am in the minority here, but I find this to be entirely different from legitimate deception based on basketball skill. Running good screens, having the ability to turn quickly, ball fake, crossover, these are all basketball skills and are an inherent part of the game. The play referenced here has nothing to do with basketball, just taking advantage of the gullibility of young kids trying to master a complex game. I would never run this type of deception and find it entirely unsporting. Especially against 4-6th graders.

Teach them to play the game, not to use these kind of tricks as a substitute for skill. As to whether to call it, I suppose this is not covered by the unsportsmanship rule. However I think folks ought to seriously reflect on why we have kids playing sports and what lessons we are trying to teach them before running plays like this in youth basketball.