Inbounds hand off rules

[Nevadaref]

From the 2007-09 NFHS Officials Manual on pages 20 & 51:

"The throw-in team should make a player available to attempt the throw-in. No appreciable delay should be allowed before placing the ball at the disposal of the thrower and beginning the five-second count."

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by Nevadaref

From the 2007-09 NFHS Officials Manual on pages 20 & 51: "The throw-in team should make a player available to attempt the throw-in. No appreciable delay should be allowed before placing the ball at the disposal of the thrower and beginning the five-second count."

Thanks Nevadaref. Now that should settle it. Be sure to turn out the light.

[CMHCoachNRef]

Originally Posted by Nevadaref

From the 2007-09 NFHS Officials Manual on pages 20 & 51:

"The throw-in team should make a player available to attempt the throw-in. No appreciable delay should be allowed before placing the ball at the disposal of the thrower and beginning the five-second count."

Kevin,
Nevadaref's rule quotation in this case is what prevents an official from waiting say "a 5 second count" (as this would be a measured amount of time) before handing the ball to the inbounder.

However, that part of the manual also states that the proper and specific spot is to be designated by the administering official, the administering official should always make eye contact with his partner(s) to insure that his partner is ready for play to resume (which includes determining if there are substitutes at the table, insuring that there are exactly five players from each team on the court, neither coach is requesting time out, etc.).

I think you should now have an understanding of why the official was getting the ball in play when he was yesterday. Was he really rushing at times? Well, perhaps, you had to be there. But, as a coach, you have to adjust your team's play to the official for that game. JRutledge, referee99 and I have given you some options that can be employed to legally give your young team some additional time to get set for inbounds plays.

One of the interesting points of officiating sports is that there are many situations that one official can interpret (and justify that interpretation) one way while another official can interpret (and just that interpretation) another way. In this case, the term "appreciable" can be interpreted to be VIRTUALLY NO TIME as was the case in your game yesterday or it can be interpreted as NO SPECIFIC AMOUNT OF TIME (not five seconds or any other specified amount of time each time) as is the case in most instances.

Good luck next week....and be sure to spend some time getting the "cats" herded to their inbound spots quickly (except for the thrower) during practice......