Backcourt Violation and Dribbling

[Back In The Saddle]

Originally posted by Rick Durkee
Relative to calling a backcourt violation, a dribbler must have both feet and the ball in the frontcourt to have front court status. Must the dribbler be in the backcourt when he starts a dribble for this to apply? For example, A1 was dribbling the ball with both feet and the ball clearly in the backcourt. He passed the ball to A2. At the time the ball reached A2, his feet were both on the floor in the frontcourt, but instead of catching the ball, he deflected the ball (clearly never held it) toward the floor and it hit in the backcourt where he continued to dribble. Legal? It feels like a violation to me, but I am not sure I can justify it by rule.

As snaqwells noted, the three points rule applies only to a dribbler dribbing from backcourt to frontcourt. The normal backcourt rules apply to A2, who is receiving a pass. His initial touch of the ball gives it frontcourt status, his dribble in backcourt gives it backcourt status and makes him the last to have touched it in frontcourt. When he touches the ball after it comes back up from the floor, he becomes the first to touch after it went to the backcourt. Violation. 9-9-1, 4-4-6