Hi

I'm a senior in high school and just had my last game of my career. We were playing for the consolation game. We were down big and came back to with in 2 with 4 secs togo. I got and fouled and made both free throws (best game of my 10 year career!) to force it into ot. We had a lead but blew it. With 20 secs to go we were down by 3 points. My friend (best shooter on the team) put up a three and got fouled. He missed the first and made the second. On the last, being down by 2, he intentionally missed it. It went off the backboard, hit the front end of the rim and we got the rebound. The ref called it dead because it was an "intentional miss by the free throw shooter." The other team got the ball and we ended up loosing by 4. After the game we asked the ref about the call. We had never heard of the rule, and even if there were such a rule it looked like it was a decent shot that almost went in.

SO my question. Is there any such rule about intentionally missing free throws? I'm not sure which rules we play under, but i think it's minnesota state high school rules.

Thank you

The free throw must hit the rim, or go through the basket, otherwise it's a violation.

If it hit the rim it's legal.

By what you've posted here the ref made a mistake.

The short answer is that the official was not correct.
The following is the main rule that governs missing FTs on purpose:
"Rule 9 Violations and Penalties
SECTION 1 FREE-THROW PROVISIONS
A player shall not violate the following provisions governing free throws:

ART. 3 . . . He/she shall throw within 10 seconds to cause the ball to enter the basket or touch the ring before the free throw ends."

Your teammate met the required conditions and so should not have been called for a violation in my opinion.

The long answer is that there is a convoluted justification for the official's call, even though the vast majority of officials believe this interpretation to be incorrect.

Here is that rule:
"Rule 4 Definitions
SECTION 20 FREE THROW

ART. 3 . . . The free throw ends when the try is successful, when it is certain the try will not be successful, when the try touches the floor or any player, or when the ball becomes dead."

Now the argument goes like this. When your teammate obviously tried to miss the FT, the official made a judgment and was certain that the try would not be successful, so the ball became dead at that point. If at this point the ball had not yet hit the rim, then the FT shooter violated article 3 from Rule 9 that I posted above.

The reason that I and most other officials feel this is not the correct understanding of the rule, is that if the try eventually hits the ring, then it was clearly close enough to being successful to preclude an official from being certain that the try would not be successful at some earlier time.

Therefore, the standard by which officials are taught to judge this action is if the FT attempt hits the ring then the shooter has not violated Rule 9, Article 3.

Unfortunately for you and your team, this particular official seems to be in the minority camp.

However, it sounds like you played well and had fun. Congrats on your high school career.



[Edited by Nevadaref on Mar 14th, 2005 at 11:52 PM]

after the game the ref claimed it was a judgment call. BUt he provide no evidence as to what the judgment was about. Any idea what he was talking about. It hit the rim and no one had a lane violation.

If you read my edited post above, that is now much more detailed, you will understand the judgment part.

If you read over the replies we gave, you'll see that no provisions in the rules exist for what he called.

I don't know where he got that rule from, it might be a local adaptation, but it is not contained within the 10 NFHS rules.

Edit: Nevada, that's an interesting view I've never thought of before. It's a cool explanation.

[Edited by ref18 on Mar 14th, 2005 at 11:59 PM]

If you've had a 10 year high school career, I have a feeling free throws are the least of your worries...

lol jk :)

interesting theory, Nevada. I think the glaring problem with this is even if the player is intending to miss; you don't know if he's going to miss or not. Case in point is Iowa's Brownlee, who was fouled with just over a second left in the Michigan State game during the Big 10 tournament. Iowa was up one, and he missed the first free throw. He intended to miss the 2nd as well, so MSU would eat up some time calling a TO. Flat rope, hit the rim and bounced up and in.

Can you tell my why you had to play Minnetonka in a 3rd place game in section play? That's the first I've ever heard about continuing to play after being eliminated from section play. 3rd place games at the state level, but never in sections...does that always happen in 2AAAA?

Thanks for the responses.

To triggerMn, I play in a rec league (southwest basketball league) so it wasn't actually sections, it was just the end of the year tourney for the league.

Well now it all makes sense.

Wayzata-->

In some cases, rec refs do not work high school games, and may not know the rules to the full extent that more seasoned officials do. Perhaps that is what happened here.