New's Flash: Billy Packer Just Got a Rules Interpretation Correct.

[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

With just 7 min. left in the Maryland/UConn game a Maryland player asked the official to not put the ball in play for a throw-in until he had tied his shoes. The official refused, and Billy Packer informed everybody that the official was correct. No wonder a winter snow storm is being predicted tonight and tomorrow for Ohio.

For those who are wondering what rule Billy was talking about. Until the 1963-64 season, the rules for H.S. and college basketball (Nat'l. Bkb. Comm. of the U.S. and Canada, the predecessor to the NFHS and NCAA Rules Comm.) allowed the game officials to stop the game or withhold the ball from play so that a player could tie his/her shoes. Starting with the 1963-64 season, the section of the rules that allowed this was deleted from the rule book, and in an editorial statement, the Rules Committee said that the officials could no longer stop the game or withhold the ball from play to allow a player to tie his/her shoes.

It made me feel great to see an official in a nationally televised NCAA tournament game enforce the rules. I have been telling officials for years, that the game cannot be stopped for such a thing. If the age group of the players are jr. H.S. age and up, it is the player's problem if he/she cannot keep his/her shoes tied. Shoes and shoelaces are not the same as eyeglasses, contacts, and earing aids. Shoelaces are not considered a safety hazard. It is a player's responsiblity to keep his/her shoes tied. It is a player's responsibility to keep his/her shoes on his/her feet. The only way that I would stop the game for a player whose shoe had come off is if the shoe posed a safety problem for the other players, i.e., the player left it out on the court to continue to play without his/her shoe and the shoe posed a safety problem for the other players.

Does that mean I never (my apologies to J. Dallas Shirley)stop the game for shoelaces? No. Just today in the Adult Men's Division III Championship game in the Ohio Special Olympics State Championships, I stopped the game after a team scored so that a player could tie his shoes. The level and skill of play of the players dictated that this was the logical thing to do.