At a high school game last night Team A was leading Team B by 3 points with about 20 seconds left. Team A stole the pass and the player went up for a dunk. He missed the dunk and hung on the rim for a few seconds. The ball bounced up, and eventually fell in while the player was still hanging on the rim. The official blew his whistle, and then all three officials discussed the call. They ended up counting the basket without any infraction, which put Team A up by 5 points with 9 seconds left. The place was going crazy. My only thought is that they said the player was protecting himself, but they should have disallowed the basket due to basket interference. Any other ideas of what may have been the ruling.

By rule,that's basket interference.No one underneath,it's also a T.

Welcome to the board,eeyink.

huh ?
 

eeyink,
Welcome to the forum.

A few seconds (3 ? 4?) seems like an awfully long time.
Do you mean a few moments? ...A few minutes?
mick

Sounds to me like JR nailed it. At least BI, I'd say the T is a judgement call, you kind of had to be there (HTBT). And another welcome to eeyink.

Blackhawk

[Edited by Blackhawk357 on Mar 12th, 2003 at 10:26 AM]

Oh no...not letting that go...call the BI, then whack the player for hanging on the rim...then whack the coach for arguing the call, whack the trainer at the end of the bench for throwing the towel out on the court, and whack the guy on the scorebook for yelling at you, and then...oh, sorry...going through withdrawals here since my season is now over...got a little carried away...I guess JR was right after all...sorry...sigh...:)

Yikes. Pretty obvious.

Not absolutely sure (given the details provided) you need to whack the player, but DEFINITELY DO NOT count the hoop.

Unfortunate for all three whistles in the crew to kick that one.

There is only one additional scenario I can see her. It is possible that the player hung on the rim but released it before the ball went throught the hoop. If that happened, I would call the T and allow the basket. Certainly a T in that situation does not nullify a legal basket.

To modify my last post:

If he's hanging while the ball's still in the cylinder (extending, theoretically, up to the roof), then basket cannot count, IMO.

If we determine the player hung on the rim for protection, then no T.

It's possible, I suppose, the ball was outside the cylinder when the player was on the rim, and if so, basket is good. Then all you have to determine is if he should have been hanging....so, as I see it, choose one of the following:

T and no basket (illegal hang, ball in cylinder)
T and good basket (illegal hang, ball outside cylinder)
No T also no basket (legal hang, ball in cylinder)
No T and good basket (legal hang, ball outside cylinder)

Dizzy yet?

To help clarify things, the ball did not hit the rim when it went through, so there is no way it was outside the cylinder. I think it is a very obvious basket interference. It should have been a technical, because the Team B player was well behind the play.

The worst part of this is that the 3 referees were conferencing for about 5 minutes and they still made this call. I understand judgements calls, but the BI is way too obvious.

Too bad.

Can think of VERY few situations not involving a bench-clearing brawl that require a 5 minute conference.

I think that firedoc has it right here. BI for touching the basket (including the rim) only occurs when the ball is on or in the basket. Touching the basket is legal if the ball is in the cylinder above the basket.

In the original situation, the player was still hanging when the ball went through the basket, so waive the basket off.

There's that answer~
I still think that BI needs to be called.
It sounds like he hung there quite a while for me.

Blackhawk

It's not BI to touch the RIM while the BALL is in the CYLINDER.

It is BI to touch the RIM while the BALL is in (or on) the BASKET.

It is BI to touch the BALL while the ball is in the CYLINDER.

In the play presented, it's not BI unless the player was still hanging on (well, touching, technically) the rim as the ball went in the basket.