Players stepping out of the playing court while dribling

[Adam]

Originally Posted by just another ref

It also should be noted that even during an interrupted dribble, if the dribbler deliberately goes out of bounds at any point this is also a violation.

9-3-3

That rule is for leaving the playing court. I think there's a subtle distinction. If A1 steps on the line, he's OOB but I don't think he's really left the playing court. I could be wrong, but that's how I see it.

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by Snaqwells

That rule is for leaving the playing court. I think there's a subtle distinction. If A1 steps on the line, he's OOB but I don't think he's really left the playing court. I could be wrong, but that's how I see it.

Subtle distinctions? You bet.

First, the rule regarding leaving the "playing court" actually reads leaving the "floor". 9-3-3: A player shall not leave the floor for an unauthorized reason. What's the floor? I can't find a definition of floor anywhere in the NFHS Rulebook.

Second, let's move on to whether, or not, the boundaries are part of the "court". There's no question that the boundaries are out of bounds.
4-9-1: Boundary lines of the court consist of end lines and sidelines.
4-9-2: The inside edges of these lines define the inbounds and out-ofbounds
areas.

But are the boundaries part of the court?
1-1: The playing court shall be a rectangular surface free from obstructions and with dimensions not greater than 94 feet in length by 50 feet in width.
1-2-1: The playing court shall be marked with sidelines, end lines and other lines as shown on the appended court diagram.
Here's where it gets "fuzzy". If you're on a playing court that's 50 feet wide, the Basketball Court Diagram, at the beginning of the Rulebook, states that the dimensions are measured "inside the sidelines", so the boundaries must not be part of the playing court. However, the rules also state that the playing court must be marked by "sidelines, end lines", etc., which seems to imply, although I disagree with this, that the boundaries may be considered part of the playing court, since the playing court is marked by boundaries.

I am most interested in, and still want to know, what the definition of "floor" is? Does anybody else?

Snaqwells: Great post. Thanks. Now that the season is winding down for many of us, these are the type of posts that some of us need to stay sharp during the off season. And thought provoking posts like yours will also keep me from going back to my bad habits of posting images.

[Adam]

Billy, I think the case plays give us some insight into the committee's intent with this rule. Taking a few steps out of bounds to avoid a screen or defender is leaving the floor.

A defender gives up LGP by having a foot touching the line, but the rules (or case plays) say nothing about a 9-3-3 violation being committed; otherwise we could avoid the foul by calling a defensive violation for leaving the floor.