Homer Simpson voice: Doh! :D

But that's why I said:

I had a game on a non-regulation court this past season which had a restraining line 3 feet inside the court from the end lines because there was not sufficient room to inbound the ball without it. Pre-game we told captains an coaches that nobody could go in there to defend or receive a pass. No incidents until late in the 3rd qtr when an offensive player for the visitors went clearly into the zone to receive an inbound pass. The defender had stayed behind the restraining line. Advantage for the offense. Whistle for violation. Visitors coach went berserk because I had not called it all game [because there were no violations to that point]. But if the defender had gone into the zone alone and made the steal and no call was made, the coach would have gone berserk in the other direction.

Make the call because if a long pass had been completed for a layup at the other end and you had NOT made it, the other team would have been cheated. See 1972 Summer Olympics. ;)

We try to minimize the incites and maximize the insights.

Buuuuuuut . . . Vanderbilt is in the - wait for it - SEC.

Had similar situation in a game. Happened to be Special Olympics but that doesn't matter. Foul with 1 second left and the player made both throws to win. A parent later told me that refs shouldn't determine the outcome. I told him that if I called the foul, I determined the outcome. And if I didn't call it, I determined the outcome by giving the defense an unfair advantage. He just laughed and said he'd never thought of it that way.

You're going to get booed anyway, so get booed for doing the right thing.

:D You beat me to it!

But, seriously, how do you determine how thick the line really is? I know on TV I can see how wide it is, but I guess I've never really thought about how thick it might be.

Or how thick I might be...

Well, a line has no thickness, which is why the painted "line" is entirely OOB.

I don't know about other gyms, but at GW, the OOB "stripe" is at least 3 feet wide on the baselines.

If you talk to my wife, the paint chemist, she will call you out on that one. A painted line most certainly has a thickness (although it's usually measured in microns). I guess I was just wondering how many gallons it would take to make a line several feet thick?

(Man, I need to get back to work...)

(speaking geometry here)

No line has thickness, painted or otherwise. In fact, if it is a line, it has no end. The standard <em>sideline</em> is really a 2" x 84' rectangle. The inside edge of it is an 84' line segment. That painted line is actually a rectangular solid: it has length, width, and thickness.

Exactly.

Which has nothing to do with the original question about where the OOB line is; I was just trying to point out the wastefulness of using soooo much paint to create a line several feet thick in...you guessed it...the SEC.

That's a peeve of mine, being told that refs shouldn't decide the game. The players decide the game, period. You have to call the rules correctly, without regard for the affect on the outcome of the game.

The players decided the real outcome. The refs just called attention to the reality.

Thanks mplagrow and rainmaker. I wanted to tell the guy that told me this the same thing, but I didn't want him to think I was disrespecting him.

You have to respect your elders.

That's not a line . . .

(I need to get back to work, too)