Defense reaching through plane on throw in.

[Nevadaref]

Originally Posted by isualum12

Ok so here is a slight twist that I need your help with. Thrower is standing 3 feet off the line as I hand the ball into him. Defender is standing up almost on the line but not breaking it (yet). Thrower televised his pass that he was about to make across the key and defender starts to move along the baseline that direction. The ball is released from throwers hand. Defender reaches across the line (out of bounds) and slaps the ball down towards his own feet inbounds, gathers the ball and tweet. I blew my whistle and gave the team its first warning.

The coach argued later that because the ball was released out of the throwers hands it was ok. I still see the defender reaching across the line. (Of course the coach also argued that the ball was in play when touched by the defender, who knows maybe he did have a better look at it from center court then I did from the baseline 6 feet away.)

Still a illegal act even though the ball left the throwers hands correct?

Three clarifications:
1. There is a difference between the NCAA and the NFHS rules on this.
2. Was this a pass to an OOB teammate after a made goal and a time-out? Camron poses this scenario.
3. Was this a throw-in pass that was heading into the court?

Answers:
1. In the NCAA the defender can not reach across the plane until the ball breaks the OOB line. In NFHS the defender can reach across as soon as the throw-in pass is released from the thrower's hands.

2. If this was an OOB pass between teammates after the opponent scored, which likely it was not since you handed the ball to the thrower, then it is a technical foul for the defender to break the plane and contact the ball in both the NCAA and NFHS rule sets.

3. If this was a throw-in pass heading to an inbounds teammate, then your play was legal at the high school level (NFHS), but illegal at the college (NCAA) level. See #1.