Injured player w/ possession of the ball
 

I have a scenario that came up during a game I was a clinician for at a camp a few weeks ago. I've run it by a few people, but nobody can really come to a consensus on the correct way to handle this, so I thought I'd offer it up to the masses here.

A1 has the ball in her front court and dribbles along the front court endline. As she gets in the middle of the lane, she is trapped by B1 and B2 against the endline. Flailing of arms occurs (girls basketball remember) and A1 is inadvertently poked in the eye somehow. She instantly doubles over, still possessing the ball, one hand over her eye, and crying out in pain, and standing in the middle of the lane.

As far as I can see there are two realistic options (point out additional options if I miss them):

1) Officials time out for injury, team A gets the ball along the endline for a throw in after replacing the injured player.

2) Wait until A1 has committed a 3 second violation, and replace the injured player once the ball becomes dead.

Of the people I've polled, it's a pretty even split between options 1 and 2. I personally go w/ option 1, but I also get where people are coming from with option 2 in that they don't want to see team B lose the obvious advantage they have gained by playing good defense and having A1 trapped with nowhere to go and a violation quickly approaching.

What does everybody here think? Is there an option 3 I haven't mentioned?

I'm with Option 1 since the "playing of good defense" included a poke to the eye.

I'll live with the grief from the defense's coach.

Getting poked in the eye, if A1 was basically standing upright, usually involves the defenders hands being somewhere that is not protected (not in their vertical plane). You said the arms were flailing. I've got illegal us of hands.

Let's assume that somehow A1 in her flailing inserted herself into B1's vertical plain and impaled herself on B1's finger, thereby initiating the injury. Just for the sake of the scenario, even though I agree that what you mentioned was a very real possibility. Or let's even pretend that you didn't see how A1 got injured, but she obviously is.

I say we go with the NFHS rule for this situation. Unfortunately I don't have a rule book handy.

Blow the whistle replace the injured playered.
-You've got an injured player
- her team has the ball
- you are not disadvantaging the team in possession.
-The injured player is in the middle of the play risking furhter injury to herself and others.


The only way I'm letting the play continue is if the ball comes loose, play is moving away from the injured player and the team on defense is now coming up with the ball to transition immediately.

In that case, I'd go mostly with what Panter suggested. You have an injured player that has not yet violated any rule. Had they not been poked in the eye, they may have been able to vacate the lane to avoid the violation.

The only place I differ from Panther on is the threshold for blowing it dead when the ball is lose and/or being grabbed by the other team. At 80-90' from the opposite teams basket, I'm probably blowing it dead immediately when the other team recovers the ball. They are most likely NOT in transistion or in an attack yet.

I agree with all of you guys who say to kill it immediately. I just thought it interesting that I found a couple of guys who were more in favor of option 2 and wanted to see if anybody else agreed with them.

"When a player is injured as in Art. 2(a), the official may suspend play after the ball is dead or is in control of the injured player’s team or when the opponents complete a play. A play is completed when a team loses control (including throwing for goal) or withholds the ball from play by ceasing to attempt to score or advance the ball to a scoring position. When necessary to protect an injured player, the official may immediately suspend play."

The injured player's team is in control of the ball, and if A1 is doubled over in pain holding her injured eye she has certainly "ceas[ed] to attempt to score of advance the ball to a scoring position". The criteria has clearly been met, I'm stopping play.

Though we have rules that tell us how to handle an injury situation, an injury is not a legitimate part of the game. So to suggest that the official withhold the whistle and wait for the injured player to commit a violation...that does not sit well with me, it's adding insult to injury. If there was a foul by the offensive player or one of the defenders, call it. Otherwise just stop play.

Thanks BITS. That's what I was trying to get at.

No need to pretend most of the time. Often when a player is poked in the eye, all you see is the flinch.

Three Blind Mice ...
 

If you didn't stop the game for the eye poke, then this would happen next. I've seen it happen a million times.


http://thm-a02.yimg.com/nimage/6d6ad1ad6606dfb2

Sounds like a foul on A1. There's your dead ball. :D

That's what I was thinking--come out strong with a player control........................................... .....:eek:



Of course, you may need to start contemplating what your next career move is going to look like.

Easy. It looks like polishing up your resume and packing away your gear for storage. ;)