Sometimes it just makes you chuckle . . .
 

This happened to my friend tonight in a GV game . . . no I swear it was my friend and not me.

In the first 2 minutes of the game, I, I mean my friend, was the C. The game was moving along fine and he was minding his own business. Then the ball came in his primary. He was at the FT line extended, where he belongs, when pressure came.

A couple of girls gave pressure on the ball, so he moved up to get a good angle. I've always told him, "it's about angles. Get an angle so you aren't stacked and can see the play." He rolls toward the division line about 8 feet from the action when the player split the defenders. She then rocketed a pass right at his stomach. He caught it! :eek: As a matter of fact, he caught it nicely and showed good athleticism catching such a rocket. :cool:

Anyway, at this point he didn't know what to do. The gym was quiet and not only were the 10 players on the floor looking at me, I mean him, the whole gym was looking.

My question; What would you have done at this point?

Trust me, me and my partners had a good laugh at this one. :o

Clearly, I would have launched a 3-Ball.

Had I done that, and made it, maybe we would have avoided the OT that occured :30 later! :D

Sorry Mark, it wasn't my fault. My partner caused it. :mad:

Couldn't Pass on this One!
 

Been lurking for a year or so and couldn't pass on this one. My wife's late grandfather used to ref. During one game, in his younger days, there was a quick turnover near the division line. Grandfather was on opposite side of the court from the break-away player. Player hears footsteps, looks up and fires a pass to grandfather who without hesitation continues on and shoots a lay-up. Crowd is stunned...............

I actually had this play happen to me during a camp one summer. I caught the ball and once I realize what I did. I dropped it and the offense actually got it back and play continued.

Serious question here...Could we, as part of 2-3 say that the ball was going out of bounds, therefore give possession to the other team? I know officials are part of the floor, and if the ball hits an official it's play on, but we aren't supposed to catch the ball...

What's your opinion?

GJV game last week, I was in front of the play on a fast break when the visiting pg through a perfect bounce pass that I had to dodge.

I heard her coach say, "Yeah, the ref was wide open." He was smiling, they were winning easily.

You can't use 2-3 because this situation is addressed by the rules. If you catch it, drop it where you stand.

You could blow your whistle, go with the IW, and give the ball to the team who had control. In the OP, I might do that if all 10 players are just staring, but dropping the ball and stepping away would most likely get them to start playing again.

Why do that? What if you were standing just along the end line or the side line and it is obvious the ball was going to go out before anyone could grab it?

I had a ball thrown in my direction last weekend (might have mentioned this already) where I tried to duck. Player standing a few feet away from me (I didn't know he was there at the moment) came running in my direction (I don't think he knew I was there either) and ended up running into me. Hit my head hard with his arm, kneed me in the lower left back (that still hurts a little today when I'm running), and I ended up falling down on my bad knee. Player must have went down too or something because when I looked back the ball just rolled out of bounds with no one chasing it.

I had a friend who yesterday...
 

.... while making a graceful traveling violation call, stepped on the basketball which got loose after the travel, rolled his ankle and fell right on his a$$!

One never knows when the ankle gets a good roll, but despite soreness this morning, I felt no ill effects tonight for a double header tonight.

Yeah, why stop the clock? I go with your option A: drop it and play on. No biggie.

Agree with mb on this one. The Rules Book nor the Case Book discusses treating a catch any different than an inadvertent touch. Drop the ball and get ready to officiate the scrum that will likely follow.

Jump ball at the center circle between the T and L. :D

Ugh. You really don't have a good grasp of the rules and yet you continue to doll out advice. The official is no different than the spot on the floor where he is standing. If you are inbounds and the ball hits you or you catch it, just drop it. If you are out of bounds, then, and only then, would the ball be considered out of bounds.

That's what I did. I thought about dropping it and trying to act like it never happened. But in the 1 or 2 seconds that it took me to gather myself, I had 10 girls and a gym full of people at a dead stop.

If it had been boys, I believe they would have played on. Being girls, I think they would have stared at me and wondered why I did that!

Because it's the rule; go with it. Frankly, my decision here would be level of play. First of all, you can't just try to decide what would have happened if you hadn't caught the ball. You caught it, deal with it from there.

If you blow your whistle, you have an IW, and need to get the ball in play by the rules. The first stop along the decision route is to see if there was team control. A player threw a pass, so that team still has control. Their ball, easy and simple.

If you play on (ideal in most cases), drop it and step away. I personally have no problem with Scratch's choice. With everyone confused, sometimes it's just best to stop and re-set everyone's brains.

I don't believe that would be an accurate application of the rules. Me catching the ball was a reaction.

We had this exact at least very close to exact situation presented at a clinic this year. We were told in the event that an official has to catch a pass that is thrown at him to prevent injury then the resulting possesion will be determined by going to the AP arrow.

That would be incorrect with NFHS and NCAA rules; perhaps it's different with FIBA?

I can't find any support for this decision either way in the FIBA rulebook either. The rational was we don't know what the result would have been if the ball had not been caught, it may have gone OB or been intercepted, or may even have been an assist for an easy layup. No way of knowing for sure so therefore, like when your not sure who knocked the ball out of bounds (ie. 2 players from opposite teams tip the ball at the same time) go to the arrow.

But the ball isn't out of bounds and there is still team control. I don't understand that rationale at all.

If you have an IW in the middle of a pass, do you go to the arrow? The problem is, the ball was caught, so you can't pretend otherwise by trying to determine "what would have happened if...."

Not sure if your asking or telling me something here :confused:

Like I said I can't find supporting references either way in the rule book. As for the second part of your statement I agree, you cant determine possesion based on the what if's. I think this is what the clinician was getting at. Just dropping the ball where you catch it is what I would do but how do you know that the play was not affected by your actions.

In this case I will do as told until told differently by someone else with authority.

Just to add my name to the hat - I have also caught a pass directed at me out of a natural reaction as a player. I dropped the ball and also made a point to back away from it, raised my arms in the air to really accentuate the "have it boys!" and they hustled after it like a loose ball. If nobody reacts I might have said "live ball" or something along those lines to indicate play was expected to continue.

Of course, this was because I never considered myself a 3-point shooter and coach was yelling if players took bad shots.

Just to add a little complexity, A1 is dribbling, ends her dribble and mistakenly passes to the official instead of her teammate. Official drops the ball immediately upon catching it, and A1 scrambles to the ball and picks it up before it touches another player.

What do you have?

My IW is looking better all the time! :)

I guess you would have to call an illegal dribble.

LOL
Yep, Illegal dribble.

Unless you judge the pass was really a fumble ;)

Sorry, I meant to add, "When in Rome." I understood you were passing on your instructions. I was just wondering about the ramifications of their ruling; also about the loose ball issue in particular.

If FIBA has a loose ball provision, the ruling would make more sense. If not, then any IW without "player control" (rather than just "team control") would result in AP since you really don't know what would have happened.

I understand what you're saying and would never encourage you to depart from your instructions on this.