legal play? or Not?

[bob jenkins]

Originally Posted by JS 20

If it's a valid shot attempt, no violation. But if you were able to discern that it wasn't a shot attempt, you have a double dribble. I think this is actually an NCAA rule and I thought it was NFHS. Is this covered in the case book anywhere?

No, it's not a double dribble. 2-Ball Location says something like "A ball which hits the front face of the back board is the same as the ball hitting the floor, excpet that it's NOT the start of a dribble when it hits a team's own backboard."

So, clearly it's not a dribble.

It *could* be a travel if the player needs to go get it, but there's a general rule that you can't travel when you're not holding the ball (with the one exception of getting the ball on the floor, putting the ball down, standing up, and then picking up the ball).

Left open is whether the player can dribble again (assuming they had dribbled before throwing the ball off the backboard). After all, the player hasn't lost control based on a try, an opponent touching the ball, etc. The general interp, though, I think, would be to allow it.

If the play were more common (I don't think I've ever seen a player recover the ball off his own backboard when it wasn't a try and when no one else touched it), I'm sure there'd be a clarification in the 2-Player Control (or elsewhere).