Rebound coverage

[Rich]

Working 3-person. Second of 2 free throws. I'm the trail, tableside.

The ball comes off the rim to the strong (officiating) side of the floor. The defense gets the ball and immediately gets bumped or jumps out of bounds right in front of the lead, who is probably (1) too close, through no fault of his own and (2) would probably never see a bump from behind.

I had stepped down on the free throw, but saw no bump as the angle I had put me in a position where I was looking through the back of the shooter's teammate who either (1) did or (2) did not bump the defender. I wasn't about to guess, so I had no whistle.

The visiting coach, at the other end of the floor with a very similar angle to me was fairly upset and when we ended up shooting free throws a few seconds later, the old L went back and had a l-o-n-g conversation with the coach.

One thing I'm certain, though, is this was no "two handed push in the back" as the coach (who could've never seen such a thing) claimed.

I'm thinking that the only person with an angle on this contact, provided it did happen, would've been the center, who would've had to come across the lane to get this right in front of the L. I would've had no problem with that, personally, as if there was contact that pushed the player out of bounds, it would've been better for anyone to get it. When we talked about this post-game, the C said it looked to him like the player jumped out on her own. I do not think I could've gotten deep enough and wide enough to get a good look at this myself.

A good official (football/softball, doesn't work basketball anymore) was at the game and when I ate breakfast with him this morning mentioned only this play as something that *might* have gotten missed, but even he wasn't sure.

Thoughts?