Not necessarily.

All bets are off once the shot goes up... Who's to say that the player couldn't have gained the same rebounding position anyway? We can't be mind readers.

Call the obvious violation and leave the nit-picky stuff to junior high officials :)

I understand what you guys mean when you refer to the spirit of the rule but we shouldn't forget that if a player is in the lane for 3 seconds and the violation is called, then the other team gets the ball. To me it is kind of like sliding your pivot foot a half inch. The player doing it rarely would gain any advantage but if you don't call it, the other team is put at a disadvantage by not getting the turnover. I'm certainly not arguing with anyone because most of you guys have been calling ball much longer than me and I highly respect your opinions but I tend to agree with Mark that if you start calling it early, by the time the game heats up, they have quit doing it. Thanks, Ralph.

I don't know how we got on to this 3 sec discussion.
Are we all afraid to discuss the inconsistencies we all have with the "carry" I originally talked about? One person inferred that if we call it correctly we won't advance up the ladder. Is that true in your area? One person said it's a no brainer- Oh - Excuse me - if it's that easy why aren't we calling it consistently. I watched a varsity tournament last year where one very popular player violated the carry rule every time he wanted to go past his defence. I am talking about the" change of pace dribble" where the dribbler carrys the ball during a straight forward dribble(not a cross -over or a 360 turn) and beats the defence as a result of this illegal action.
I ended up selected to work the final of that tournament(the equivalent of a State AAA final) and called the player the first time he made the illegal dribble. Guess what ?- he didn't even attempt it for the rest of the game. Does that tell you something???
Don't be afraid to discuss this and forget 3 secs- it's not that important!!
Pistol

I agree that the carry rule is not necessarily a "no brainer". Sometimes it's blatent, and those are the easy ones. But the "hesitation dribble" or the crossover or the dribble that goes all the way around the back are often tougher to judge as to whether the ball came to rest in the dribbler's hand.

Not necessarily. You found either a smart kid, or a smart coach who knows how to adjust to the officiating. And I'd submit that neither of those things is all that common. Most coaches would rather yell at you than tell their players to get set on a screen. Most players either don't know what they've done wrong, or don't care (they are going to "play their game"). This is especially true if the call is not being made consistently.

I once called carrying on the same player 4 times in the first half of a college game. The coach asked my partner what I was doing. My partner said, "They sent out a letter to crack down on the carrying. He [meaning me] is just the only one who read it."

Not everyone will adjust. So if your whole board isn't on the same page, it will just cause you grief. I'm not saying that it shouldn't be called (obviously, since I called it 4 times in a half). But if you are strict about it, you'll get grief, b/c a lot of your brother officials are weak on that call.

Chuck