Another whacky play by the ref
 

A1 is bringing the ball up court when B1 knocks the ball away toward the end line. B1 races after it, jumps from inbounds and saves the ball back into the court. Unfortunately for him, the only person in the area, is A1, who catches the ball.

However, A1 believes that B1 was clearly OOB when he saved the ball. So he immediately tosses the ball to the trail, expecting an endline throw in.

Taken by surprise, the trail catches the ball. He whistles OOB on A and gives the ball to B, indicating that B1's save was good. There was a fair amount of disbelief expressed by B1, B's coach, B's fans, but nobody said a word about how the trail handled this unusual situation of B1 tossing the ball to the ref.

Now as I replay this in my head, I don't think the trail was OOB when he caught that ball. I believe he was near the end line, and the ball would have clearly gone OOB if he hadn't caught it. But what he caught was a live ball, still in bounds.

What would you have done if you were this official, only you were aware that you were still inbounds?

Drop the ball immediately and get t'hell out of the way. It's a live ball.

You can't call an OOB on A1. The ball <b>NEVER</b> went OOB.

If you don't drop the ball immediately and you're just standing there holding the ball, you pretty much have to blow the play dead. In that case, I guess you'd haveta call it an IW and give the ball back to Team A for a throw-in...because Team A had team control at the time of the IW.

Drop The Ball And Put Your Hands Up ...
 

Sounds reasonable, by rule, and by spirit and intent.

Absolutely! This is kind of similar to a player when after a made basket a player tosses you the ball. I just put out a hand an knock it down and get out of the way. They get the hint. Haven't caught one yet! ;) On the court, live ball, and I would do the same - I would treat it like the ball "accidentally hit me" in bounds (which has happened) knock it down and play on.

I've found myself in this position before - Live ball hits you in the chest while your standing on the end line and instead of bouncing off you rolls down your body back to the floor. Everyone just kind of stood still and waited, cept for a defensive sophomore who is playing his first varsity game runs from the EL to pick the ball up and take it back for a uncontested layup. fulling expecting a shower of poo-poo of course. no one said a word. A's coach calls a timeout to ream his players for not realzing that the referee is part of the court, unless he's out of bounds. I asked B as he was walking to the bench "how'd you know it wasn't dead?" "happened a few years ago in my rec leauge - I just thought I'd see if I was lucky and the ref knew what he was talking about then."

Best thing you can do is try to get out of the way. If a balls coming at me that I didn't ask for (after a made bucket and new offense team thinks I have to hand the ball" I throw my hands up like "I don't want it." If it does touch you - make sure you don't change its direction or anything by kicking it or what not. If you do, you have to blow it dead, go with a jump ball. (at least that is how I interpreted the reading of the rule book.)

Really? Which rule?

Uh-oh......

If you're standing ON the end line, you are OOB. The referee is part of the court when he's OOB too, ace. The ball is dead as soon as it touched you, and a violation has to be called against the team that last touched the ball on the court.

NFHS rule 7-1-2-2.

The confusion on this play is when the ball touches something OOB versus a player with the ball touching a person OOB. It's a violation when the <b>ball</b> touches a person OOB. It's not a violation when a <b>player</b> holding or dribbling the ball touches a person OOB with his body(R7-1-1).

As stated above, if you do blow a live ball dead, you then follow NFHS rule 4-36 re: POI. You only go to the AP if neither team was in control when you blew your whistle. If the ball hits you on a pass while you're in-bounds and you blow it dead, you give it back to the passing team because they still had team control when you blew the whistle.

Reference, please?