In all my years, I don't think I've ever called a player control foul for holding. But my son (Josh) had that call in a freshman boys game today. Here's what happened:

Long rebound out above the 3 point line bounces high in the air after hitting the court. A1 and B1 both have an equal chance to jump and get the ball. They both go straight up. B1 taps the ball and A1 gets one hand on it. As they come down, A1 grabs the ball with his other hand, which came around B1's arm and pressed it to his (A1's) side. A1 came down and then pivoted while pressing B1's arm against his side and yanked B1 off his feet. My son made the call.

At first, coach A thought the foul was on B1, but then saw the signal for PC and jumped up and down. As my son reported it, coach A turned to his bench and yelled, "That's the worst call we'll see all year." BANG!

When Josh called me later and told me what happened, I asked him if there was a time before the foul that both players were touching the ball at the same time. He said no, or else he would have called the jump. He said at first he thought of calling the hold on B1, since his arm was inside of A1's arms, but he thought B1 went straight up with his arm and didn't reach in at all.

I guess this in one of those "ya' had to be there" situations, but it sounded to me like it was the correct call - especially the T :) (like father, like son, I guess)

BTW - at the time (late 2nd Q) it was a two point game, but from that point on, B went nuts and won by over 25.

Comments?

Sounds right to me. All too often I see this called as a foul on B1. H*ll, I've probably done it myself!

Wrong place at the wrong time
 

Oddly enough I had this situation happen to me as the player with his arm locked by the player with the ball. The call went against me and I felt it was a situation where I was just caught in a bad place at a bad time. I wish your son would have been officiating my game. ( It was my fifth)

Definitely a tough call.
Sounds like it may have bordered on intentionally too hard.

Not disagreeing one iota with the call, like you said "had too be there". But, I would have a tough time making it, I would almost lean towards a "no call" and let the fans yell about it. Who knows, but knowing myself I would have probably called the foul on B before the PC on A. That's why I like the "no call" for me.

I'm thinking I'm in the no-call camp on this one as well unless like you say it was an intentional rough hold and pull-I would have to see it.

I had something like this today. A1 rebounds B1's shot, and passes to A2. A2 catches in the air, hooks an arm around one of B2's arms, and proceeds to spin B2 around.

Got a lot of weird looks for the PC on that one. (Not that that changes my call . . .)

I see this a lot at 7th and 8th grade where one player gets his/her hand caught under the arm of another player who has two hands on the ball. I no-call it quite a bit, but have wondered whether I would ever acquire the onions ....

Hey, where's Brian Watson these days?....

to call this PC.

Sometimes I call it on B if s/he hit the arm of A before A's elbow clamped, but often I don't see the hit or it doesn't seem very important.

I'd like to hear more discussion on this one.

Good call. If I were you, I have to work hard to sell it.

B1... no A1.... No-call!
 

This one is as haunting to me as the rivers of Montana.... In sort of a different way.... I cringe when I see it start to unfold. Last season 2 players went up for a loose ball. A1 comes down with it, clamps B1's arm, and turns to kick the ball out to a wing... No advantage/disadvantage.... No call.... Just had to explain to B1's coach why he was being hauled off in an ambulance with a dislocated elbow and there wasn't a foul in there somewhere...

MY PC has had frequent, recurrent, ebola of just about everything the last three months. And to top it off I blew my modem out so it is going back to the shop. Glad my season is going better.
This is a tough one, but generally, I think it is tough to get your arm pinned if it was not where it should be. I usually call it on B. This is a "gotta see it", but sounds like the right call. A was probably just T'eed off (pun intended) that the official sacked up and made the correct call rather than just "mailing" it in.

I haven't officiated as long as most of you guys but I have seen something similar to this many times. Both players go up for a rebound and come down together with one player having both hands on the ball and the other player with one arm trapped in the arms or grasp of the other player. I always try to go with a no-call if I can when the "trapped" player is trying to get his arm out and does not try to dislodge the ball-ie: hold, slap, etc, and does not take an advantage over the player with the ball while getting loose. The few times I have made a call it has been a hold because the trapped player is still trying to go for the ball and it usually sells okay to the coach but in the situation Mark described, I think a PC might well be in order but I can sure envision a hard sell.