Travel or Not (with video)
 

Long time reader and just starting to be a first time poster.

Been a basketball official for about 13 years now and making my climb up the proverbial ladder. One of the college level camps I went to a summer or two ago really stressed the value of film in improving your game but also how to break down film as well.

This clip below came from a BV game I worked during the Christmas break. Before I watched this game I wanted to check about 7-9 plays to make sure I got them right, but while doing so I came across this play which was not on my list and I didn't recall it until I watched the film.

I probably spent a good 15-20 minutes looking at this particular play. I'm the lead on the play and I initially thought it was right no-call/non-travel, however when I kept re-watching the play and slowing it down I'm pretty sure I missed the travel. Watch it and let me know if you agree....

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/y5CQRx9Uhf8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Ball secured with left foot down used to advance toward the goal. Travel when he steps again with that left foot.

Definitely a travel. Just something to look for in the future.

Both feet established new spots on the floor. Always a travel.

Yeah - it looks like you missed that one. It happens...the question to ask is "why" it happened. In no way am I trying to pick on you here, just maybe help you not miss that kind of play next time...it appears that you did not hustle to the end line to be in a position to see this play. On the near steal prior to this play, you hustled back, but then on the actual steal, you seemed to stop short of the position you needed to get to in order to referee this play. Making sure that doesn't happen again is way more important than whether or not you missed the travel, imho.

Thanks for sharing this - it's a lesson for all of us.

yeah I agree with what you said...I'm not too concerned about the missed travel, but you are right that my positioning wasn't great. I don't remember getting screened out on the play, but I needed to be deeper more. I noticed that when I first watched the DVD. Film defiantly doesn't lie!

It does look like a travel, but you cannot see the ball in this video to know when exactly he grabbed or controlled the pass. I cannot even say definitely which foot was the pivot based on this angle alone.

Peace

I think the rule of thumb should be, if you have to replay a scenario over and over and actually slow it down to determine what happened, stick with the original call.

Yeah, he traveled. But it was so close that probably nobody would have noticed it to begin with. Or at least nobody that was being honest about it anyway.

It also appears that you're looking up at the shot and not lower, where you should be looking.

First of all... I miss plenty of calls. I do my best but it happens.

The point I want to make is that we should not say it is okay or it happened to quickly to see. Most basketball plays happen quickly and we get paid the big bucks to see the play and make the call. It was a missed call and one team was mistakenly rewarded with 2 points. We should not berate the poster because it happens to all of us but it should be called and it is not okay to miss.

On a side note but on this subject. I have been thinking that on these types of inside scoring plays, possibly the 3 man mechanics should be updated so that the center, if not on the ball can look for travel calls while the on the ball lead would focus more on contact. Currently, the on ball ref needs to see contact as well as travel which is very difficult when there are multiple players around a ball handler driving to the basket. I realize this would put 2 refs on-ball in this situation but something really should be done about the rash of missed travel calls. I believe it was on this web site where I read about the huge number of missed travel calls in many state finals proving that this is a national problem.

The off-ball officials can and should always be involved in plays like you are talking about. We want the T or the C to pick up that travel call while the L is watching for the contact. So I am really not sure what point you are trying to make here.

Watching the video, this is a play C should have had.

Except that this game was in Oregon where they refuse to move to 3 person mechanics.

Ah, then it's a bit understandable. T's going to be further away. Although given what was happening, the T should have been staying a bit closer to the play.

True. And then could have helped with the travel call.