A1, who is in the back-court, passes the ball into the front-court. The pass hits an official and rebounds back into the back-court, where A1 recovers the ball. Should the official rules this a back-court violation?

Rule 9-8-2: A player of the team in control shall not: <li>...While in its backcourt, cause the ball to go from backcourt to frontcourt and return to backcourt in team control, without the ball touching a player in the frontcourt, and be the first to touch it in the backcourt.

I am going to assume (and when you assume you make an *** of U and ME, as my H.S. geometry teacher always said) that the official was touching completely in Team A's front court. If this is the case it is a back court violation. If any part of the official was touching Team A's front court, then it is not a back court violation.

Mark T.,
For the sake of discussion regarding the case above,let's assume the following:

<li>Official is straddling the division line... right foot in front court and left foot in backcourt.

Ball hits right foot returns to BC and A recovers.

Of course, this won't happen in our games because, we, as Trail, are behind the play and cuz we're hustlin' all the time. ;)

mick

If the official was in frontcourt then it is a backcourt violation.

If the official is in backcourt then I believe we have a self pass. I am looking through the rule book for anything on the subject. If any of you come up with one, can you pass the reference along.

Ok, I found it 4.15.4c in the case book deals with throwing the ball off an official. This would be considered a dribble. If A1 has already dribbled then double dribble is the correct call. Otherwise if the player picks it up, then he has lost his dribble and cannot dribble again.

Other Mark - I think you mean "touching Team A's <i>back </i>court" in your last sentence?

What if?
 

Yo,

<u>Sitch:</u> Center watching play and is "dead center" straddling the side line with one foot out of bounds and one foot inbounds. (Right foot in bounds, Left foot out-of-bounds).
Ball gets loose and is sharply batted at the official who has no time to move.
The ball hits the official's right hip and bounces inward to playing area. I've got a live ball. What's your call, OOB?

mick

OOB!
 

Official is OOB Ball come in contact with him. End of Sitch, going to the team that do NOT bat the ball.

From the NCAA rules: Rule 4, Section 40, Art. 3. When the ball touches an official who is on the playing court, play shall continue as if the ball touched the floor at the official’s location.

So if I'm OOB and the ball hits me, the ball is OOB. If I'm in the front court and the ball hits me, then the ball has front court status.

What does this mean when one of my feet is in bounds and the other is out of bounds, or when one foot is in the frontcourt and one in the backcourt? I don't believe that the rules that specify that a player is OOB if any part of her body is OOB tells us that the "official's location" is OOB if any part of his/her body is OOB.

Where does that leave us? Elastic powers---my favorite rule. I would simply try to make the call that would give the least advantage/disadvantage to either team.

Re: OOB!
 

willie,
How do I know that? Case? Rule? ...Intent? :)
Thanks.
mick

Darn it, I am going to have to start ready the case book again ;-). But really that is a no brainer that I should have remembered. Great call Tim, followed probably a T (unfortunately, because the coach will be a jerk about it) on the offensive team's coach.

Mark Padgett, you are correct, I meant to say back court in my last sentence.

It is only a T if the ball was aimed at your head and the last call you made was a bad one against the guy throwing the ball at you. I think the original message had no intent behind the throw, the official was inadvertantly in the way of the pass.

Re: the back court case - remember this. A1 in frontcourt with ball, ball gets loose, ball touches floor in frontcourt then bounces up and hits official who is standing in backcourt, then ball goes back into frontcourt without touching anything else in backcourt and is recovered by A1 in frontcourt. This is a violation. The fourth element of an over and back call is that the last team to have touched it in frontcourt is first to touch <i>after the ball has been in the backcourt </i>, not that the ball must still be in the backcourt when touched.

Try 'splaining that to a coach. I have had to at least twice in my career. It wasn't fun.