Throw In - Ball at disposal of a player

[Adam]

Originally Posted by Coach Bill

Bob - I apologize for re-hashing a month old post, but did u ever find this definition? That 5th grade girls game I was watching, the ref would start the count as soon as the ball went through the hoop. The inbounding team wasn't delaying. I was watching the ref and she was usually at 2 by the time the inbounder got out of bounds. The defense was pressing, so there were about three or four "quick" 5-second calls.

I know at the Varsity level the officials wait until the player is out-of-bounds as long as no one is delaying. And, I believe that to be the correct interpretation, but I certainly can't point to a rulebook or casebook to verify.

For me, it's about the intent of the rule. The rule is that the team has 5 seconds to complete the throw in, so why someone would want to start the count before the throw in can even be legally completed is beyond me. Well, other than to get an extra few "gotcha" calls in a 5th grade girls game.

This is the danger of people reading the rules on their own and discovering things they didn't know. This guy read the rules, and saw "at the disposal" defined, in part, by "available" and didn't take into account the context and intent.