Oddest plays of the year

[26 Year Gap]

Originally Posted by Camron Rust

That one has been heavily debated in the past. Some argued that it would be as you said no matter how the ball was thrown or to what area. Others argued that this would only be the case if the initial trajectory of the ball was towards the basket....that a defender couldn't change what would have been a 3 into a 2 just by touching the ball....but that a defender couldn't also change what was never going anywhere near the basket into a 3 just becasue they deflected it.

The rules were/are a bit ambiguous on the point with one rule saying a thrown ball that goes in is a 3, even if the defense touches it with another rule/case having a situation where it is only a two if it bounces off someone's head into the basket.

I'm in the camp of counting only 2 unless the ball was thrown towards the basket to start....meaning B's touch was more or less just a touch and not a bat of the ball in an entirely new act.

I had that exact play and ruled it a 2. Clearly a line drive pass parallel to the floor to a teammate in the high post. Deflection inside the arc changed the trajectory and it went in. Ran it by my old interpreter who was on the rules committee recently. He indicated that as I described it, the ruling was correct.