Jump Ball Positioning
 

BV I'm getting ready to toss to start the game. I blow my whisltle and step into the circle and before I toss it up partner blows whistle and runs over and tells a player on the outside of the big circle that he can't have his foot behind an opponents foot during the jump. Basically, a home player was just outside the circle and a visiting player was beside him waiting for the tip off, but the visiting player had his leg behind the home players leg. If the home player tried to go back he probably would have tripped over the visitors foot. The visiting player was 6'6", and his legs weren't spread overly wide with his stance. Can anyone direct me to where I can find information about proper jump positioning? This is the first time I've ever heard of this.

This could be considered a violation of 6-3-5b "take a position in any occupied space."

Stand By Your Man, Not Behind Him ...
 

Not a violation until the ball becomes live on the toss. Good preventative officiating from your partner, but I don't know if I would have sounded my whistle.

There are 3 foot 'lane spaces' around the circle. They extend back 3 feet. I think we relax often on a jump and forget about stuff like that. No different than C or T sounding a whistle prior to L bouncing the ball to a free thrower when an opponent wants to grab the last lane space.

I was thinking this was the case, but can't find it.

Another Reason To Just Give It To The Visitors ...
 

Agree, now we do. Back in the olden days, before those new fangled electric light bulb alternating possession arrows, when we were tossing for jump balls dozens of times each game, at three different jump ball circles, we knew the rules like the backs of our hands. Yep, this was back when girls middle school games took almost three hours. And we used to walk, in the snow, to all of our games, uphill, both ways.

Red is the new blue
 

Color me skeptical.

Jumping Jacks ...
 

We had to know the jump ball rules that well. Jump balls to start every period. Jump balls for every held ball. Jump balls for two opponents touching ball going out of bounds. Jump balls for when officials don't know who caused it to go out of bounds. Jump balls for lodged balls. I think that we even had jump balls for closely guarded? And we had a wide variety of players jumping, not two big guys tapping to a bunch of littler guys like we have today. In three different jump ball circles. Coaches actually had plays for different jump ball situations, expect to win tap, expect to lose tap, near their basket, near opponent's basket, etc. I only coached middle school and I had two, or three, jump ball plays that we actually practiced.

Don't believe me? Just ask Jurassic Referee, and Mark T. DeNucci, Sr. Of course Mark T. DeNucci, Sr. had jump balls every time he took the ball out of the peach basket. As an official, I don't go back that far.

Also, when no 3 point line existed, a player could be behind players in the lane, as long as he stood at least 3 feet behind the other player. And 'lane spaces' were at 3 ft intervals even around the back of the circle behind the FT shooter, although those were unmarked ones.