Over & Back?

[CMHCoachNRef]

Originally Posted by Cobra

A1 is dribbling in the front court near the division line with no defenders nearby. A1 dribbles ball off of his leg and the ball rolls away (interrupted dribble). Ball rolls into backcourt where A1 picks it up. No violation as there was no player control until A1 went into the backcourt and picked it up.

Cobra,
Assuming that A1 has both feet and the ball in the front court, if the ball rolls into the back court AND IS TOUCHED by Team A without the defender touching the ball, this would still be a backcourt violation since the ball was in player control in the front court and was not touched by the defense and WAS TOUCHED in the backcourt by A1.

The purposes of my changes for the backcourt violations are to eliminate the exceptions to the rules for throw-ins, the termination of those exceptions (ball being tipped), etc. ALONG WITH elimination of the last-touch-first-touch backcourt violation call.

I know many disagree with me on this, but I get back to the purpose of the division line -- to prevent a team from being able to hold the ball for a long period of time by using the entire court. It was NOT to prevent a team was retrieving a pass deflected by the defense.

The inconsistency in this rule grinds on me. If the defender just barely tips a pass causing the offensive player to misplay the pass into the backcourt, it is a violation if is it touched first by the offensive team. Yet, if the pass is nearly intercepted by the defender resulting in the ball going directly into the backcourt, the offense can retrieve the ball without penalty. It seems to me that in order to be consistent, any time the defense can cause the ball to go into the backcourt, it should be a violation if touched first by the offense.

All of this goes away if the rule stated that IF the ball is touched by the defense, the division line effectively disappears until the offensive team regains player control. If the ball would go into the backcourt, a new 10 count would start since the offensive team would still have team control.