Intentional Lane Violation on FT attempt

[ramball22]

Situation: My team is up 3 points, less than 10 seconds to play in regulation game... We foul our opponent to negate them hitting a 3 point shot to tie the game. They MAKE their first FT. They intend to MISS the second FT.

Therefore, in order to keep our opponent from missing the second FT, rebounding the miss and scoring a game tying 2 point shot, I instruct our players to intentionally violate the lane on each FT attempt until our opponent MAKES the FT.


If I instruct my team to intentionally violate the lane, i.e. enter early, before each FT in which our opponent is purposefully trying to miss, could it be construed as unsportsmanlike behavior that could result in my team being assessed a Technical foul?

[Adam]

Yes, it could, and I would warn you after probably the second offense.

You'd only get one warning.

[Adam]

The reasoning is, we're at an impasse in the game if the offense wants to miss and the defense wants to force them to make it by committing violations. Only one of those strategies is actually employing a violation of the rules, so that's the one we'll target.

[ramball22]

Thanks, Adam.

I thought it was a good idea. A story was relayed to me that this technique was espoused by Don Meyer. Guess it's not a viable option.

Not that I don't believe you but... I'd still like to hear other opinions.

[Adam]

No worries. We've discussed the play here before. I'm not sure this is spelled out in the rules, and some may let it go. The consensus here, though, was that this is an advantage not intended by the rules.

[canuckrefguy]

Originally Posted by ramball22

Not that I don't believe you but... I'd still like to hear other opinions.

Okay...

Originally Posted by Adam

Yes, it could, and I would warn you after probably the second offense.

You'd only get one warning.

Originally Posted by Adam

The reasoning is, we're at an impasse in the game if the offense wants to miss and the defense wants to force them to make it by committing violations. Only one of those strategies is actually employing a violation of the rules, so that's the one we'll target.

+1

[Adam]

Here's a previous thread on the topic.

[LeeBallanfant]

Originally Posted by ramball22

Situation: My team is up 3 points, less than 10 seconds to play in regulation game... We foul our opponent to negate them hitting a 3 point shot to tie the game. They MAKE their first FT. They intend to MISS the second FT.

Therefore, in order to keep our opponent from missing the second FT, rebounding the miss and scoring a game tying 2 point shot, I instruct our players to intentionally violate the lane on each FT attempt until our opponent MAKES the FT.


If I instruct my team to intentionally violate the lane, i.e. enter early, before each FT in which our opponent is purposefully trying to miss, could it be construed as unsportsmanlike behavior that could result in my team being assessed a Technical foul?

I hope you had the arrow in your favor when you tried this.

[APG]

Originally Posted by LeeBallanfant

I hope you had the arrow in your favor when you tried this.

Arrow doesn't come into play in this situation.

[Adam]

Originally Posted by APG

Arrow doesn't come into play in this situation.

It could if the shooting team was smart and they had the arrow.

If B1 steps into the lane early in an attempt to "force" a make, and A1 sees it, he can simply shoot an airball. That gives us a double violation, and A gets the ball for a throw in under their own basket.

[APG]

Originally Posted by Adam

It could if the shooting team was smart and they had the arrow.

If B1 steps into the lane early in an attempt to "force" a make, and A1 sees it, he can simply shoot an airball. That gives us a double violation, and A gets the ball for a throw in under their own basket.

True, though I got the feeling that LeeBall thought the arrow was in play inherently....I could be wrong though.

[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

I don't know if my post is going to help settle anything here.

First, I reviewed the thread the Adam had referenced earlier in this thread and was surprised that I had not commented in it even after BillyMac had requested for responses from veteran officials who remembered the Lack of Sufficient Action rule.

Second, in the older thread (Nov. 2011) I believe it was M&M Guy gave a number of rules references that correctly stated that our situation is not a delay of game situation.

Third, the best way to describe our situation is that once the ball becomes Live, one team is deliberately committing a violation in order to force their opponent to play offense in a certain way and the team committing the violation is doing it every time the ball is made Live again after the penalty for the violation is enforced.

Is this a TF for unsportsmanlike conduct? I don't know. Teams commit fouls to stop the clock and make their opponents shoot FTs in an effort to get the ball back. Is this an unsportsmanlike conduct TF?

Of course if this were a soccer game we could issue a Yellow Card (Yellow Card for those that can't make out the yellow lettering_ for persistent infringement and award an IDFK to the free throw shooting team, .

MTD, Sr.