Dribbling situations

[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

Originally Posted by jdmara

I have been struggling with a few situations lately and need some input. I have my opinion of the correct ruling but I'm interested what you all think.

Sit 1: A1 is dribbling down the court pushing the tempo of the game, he looks up to view the layout of the players up-court and looses track of the ball. The ball bounces over his head, returns to the floor untouched, bounces again, and A1 then continues his dribble.

Sit 2: A1 passes to A2 on the wing. A2 dribbles towards the top of the key and attempted to grab the ball to end his dribble. A2, however, does not get a good grip and drops the ball. The ball hits the ground and A2 slaps the ball to the ground to gather the ball and catches it after it hits the floor.

Thanks

-Josh

Josh:

Sit. 1: Legal.


Sit. 2:

First, base upon your description of the play, I a, going to assume that Aw ended his dribble by touching the ball with both ends and then fumbled or muffed the ball. At this point, there is team control by Team A but not player control by any player on Team A. A2 can recover the ball, but cannot dribble the ball if no other player touches the ball before A2 regains player control of the ball.

Second, based upon your description of the play I would not rule an illegal dribble by A2. Why? A player must have established player control before said player can start to dribble the ball. One way, for a player who does not have control of the ball, to establish player control of the ball is to catch the ball. Your own description states the A2 slapped the ball in an effort to catch the ball; that should tell you that A2 did not have control of the ball and his slapping of the ball was not the start of a new dribble but an effort to recover the ball.

MTD, Sr.