MIssed Backcourt (almost)
 

Had a situation last night that I've never experienced before. I'm T tableside. Ball swings opposite fairly deep into the corner. L starts the rotation since just about all the players were over there. I get to C and begin to look into the paint for any matchups there.

I look back out top and the ball is bouncing into the backcourt where A1 gathers it and starts dribbling back toward front court. I have absolutely no idea what happened over there or how the ball got back there.

I recover somewhat toward backcourt and immediately hear BHC yelling for "over and back". I look across and see my partner looking at me for a whistle. I got nothing. He (after it seemed an eternity) hit his whistle and we got together in the center of the floor. I told him I didn't see what happened as I was looking into the paint. He told me that no B player touched it, and we needed a violation.

All this time, I'm wondering why he just didn't go get it. Then I realize L had backed out of the rotation seeing that the offense was trying to skip pass back out to the top, making me the T again.

In the end, we got the play right, but it was a little sloppy looking on what I (now) understand was a pretty obvious violation. Any advice for what I should have done here?

Tell your partner to blow his whistle sooner and call a backcourt violation! The reason it "looked bad" was because he blew his whistle and came to you without making a call....


Who cares who calls it...just get the play right.

Moral of the story: Never release coverage of the ball until you know your partner has picked it up. You can't assume he/she has accepted that play just because the L has started to rotate.

Good point. Lesson learned. Just an odd sequence on the play.

Yep...and it is those odd sequences that bite us in the butt and teach us the hard lessons we don't forget!