2010-11 NFHS Rule Changes

[just another ref]

Originally Posted by Camron Rust

So, the player has to take the ball to a spot where they can make the throwin....then, and only then, is it availble for the throwin, at their disposal, and live.

I gotta disagree with this. I had a team last year deliberately delay in picking up the ball after a made basket in order to set up their press break. The ball was bouncing on the floor, obviously available to a player. I started my count. The coach immediately grasped this. "Gotta go! He's counting!"

[Camron Rust]

Originally Posted by just another ref

I gotta disagree with this. I had a team last year deliberately delay in picking up the ball after a made basket in order to set up their press break. The ball was bouncing on the floor, obviously available to a player. I started my count. The coach immediately grasped this. "Gotta go! He's counting!"

Keep my full statement (and in context with my statement in the post just prior to the one you quoted) and you'll not disagree. I made it quite clear that a player who could have been OOB with the ball has it at his disposal.

[mbyron]

Originally Posted by Camron Rust

Keep my full statement (and in context with my statement in the post just prior to the one you quoted) and you'll not disagree. I made it quite clear that a player who could have been OOB with the ball has it at his disposal.

What's odd about the concept of 'availability to the thrower' is that it's disjunctive, depending on the context: it's either about the ball (in ordinary plays) OR about the thrower (in plays where the thrower is delaying).

That complicates the criteria officials must apply when judging whether the ball is available. In one case the criteria involve the ball ACTUALLY being available for a throw-in, but in the other the ball is merely POTENTIALLY available for a throw-in. In the latter case we have to assess whether the player is intentionally or negligently preventing the ball from actually being available.

Hell, I could teach a modal logic class around this case!