Spin move
 

Had a post man in BV game last week that came across the lane to receive a pass, then did a 360 spin move into the middle of the lane for the shot. Well, consider the physics. Player catches the ball facing the endline, spins completely with no dribble and winds up 2 or 3 feet from where he started, with one foot returning to the floor followed by the other. It is impossible to do this without traveling from where I sit. The kid did this three times. I feel sure it wasn't something he made up that night, so apparently some officials had been allowing the move, but his own coach screamed at him the last time. "That's just foolish, son!" or something to that effect.

BUT, Smith for Duke made pretty much the same move, although off the dribble rather than receiving a pass, and not only was it a no-call, they must have replayed it ten times throughout and after the game.

No wonder the kid seemed confused.

I saw that play and thought it was a sweet move. Hakeem did some post moves too like that. Maybe some are traveling but I'm going to let a lot of them go because if you got the skills to do it then props to the player.

so if they have the skill to move quick and travel, you're gonna let it go? :confused:

no, some spin moves call the travel. But I thought the Duke move was a good and legal move and if a player does a nice spin move around a player I'm only going to call a travel if it is obvious.
OP mentions off the pass. That could be harder to do without it being a travel. But when players like Chris Paul and others do a spin move after a dribble I think it is a good play and not a travel.

Most Spin move are travels
 

I have been recording BV games televised in my area and almost every spin in a travel.
I watch the game at regular speed and if I think I see a travel spin move or not I slow it down to see if I am correct and 95% of the time it is a travel.

As a referee I watch for this very closely and what I found out is that as the lead it is very hard to watch the feet and the ball when someone in the paint is making a move to the basket and as the trail it is a lot easier to see if you don't get caught up looking at the ball but some guys as trail don't like to call traveling in the leads primary area.

That's might be a reasonable philosophy, but calling it (or not) based on whether it was "a nice spin move around a player " is just plain wrong.

Find the pivot foot and call the violation if / when it happens.

The NCAA women's video bulletins on spin moves are very good. They posted 2 in the middle of the season. I get them on the eofficials website, but I'm sure they are available other places.

Thanks to those videos being fresh in my mind I called a travel on a spin move the other night. I think in the past I probably haven't been watching the pivot foot as carefully as I should have been.

Yeah, the thing I really try to focus on is identifying the pivot when they "gather the ball". Great terminology in the videos to clarify things in my mind.

Link?
 

I called a travel from the C position last week on the spin move when the player picked up and then put down his pivot foot before the shot. Coach wasn't a big fan of the call, but I just said 'he picked up and then put down his pivot without dribbling' he left it alone. He either understood, or just moved on to something else.

Is there a link to the NCAA videos?