over & back?

[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

Originally Posted by Old School

I "thought" and I stand corrected that the ball was slapped away, and thus TC was lost, like an interrupted dribble, and while it hit the players foot, the player did not have control of it, thus, the ball was tipped into the BC, and fair game for anyone to recover wherever it goes.

Let's say the ball was passed and reflected by B1 and goes into the BC. Anyone can recover. However, let's say the ball was tipped and reflected off of A2's hand while trying to recover and it goes into the BC. A2 goes into the BC to retreive it. Is this a violation?

Now I know a team doesn't lose control (TC) on a pass, but if the ball was reflected by B1 into the BC and no one from the offense touched it, then the offense recovers it, TC was never lost by rule, why is this not a violation? However, if it reflects off the offense and goes into the BC and the offense recovers it, it is? Doesn't seem right.

Old School:

The answer to your question at the end of your second paragraph above is yes, this is a backcourt violation by Team A. Why? The ball was last touched by a player from Team A in its frontcourt before it attained backcourt status and then a player from Team A was the first player to touch it after it attained backcourt status.

Why isn't a violation in your third paragraph? For the same reason it was a violation in your second paragraph. A player from Team A was not the last player to touch the ball in Team A's frontcourt before the ball attained backcourt status.

The mistake that many people (officials, couches, players, fans, sports journalists, including Billy Packer) is that the rule does not care how the ball was caused to go from frontcourt to backcourt but which player last touched the ball while the ball had frontcourt status before the ball attained backcourt status and then which player first touched the ball after it had attained backcourt status. The rule as written removes judgement from the equation. The rule does not care what actions caused the ball to go from frontcourt to backcourt, only that it did go from frontcourt to backcourt.

Also, team control does not end during an interrupted dribble. The team in control of the ball can lose control of the ball in one of three ways: (1) The ball becomes dead. (2) An offensive player releases the ball during a field goal attempt (see player control exception) or free throw. (3) A player from the other team gains player control of the ball.

MTD, Sr.