Loose Ball Quiz
 

A1 is dribbling the ball near the sideline in his/her frontcourt when it is deflected by B1. A2 dives toward the loose ball, collides with A1, and is injured. While the ball remains loose, the official stops play out of concern for A2’s safety.

How is play resumed?

Was a team still in control? How is play resumed when it's stopped with a team in control?

A face off at center ice

The important question is whether team control had ended.
4-12-3 tells you what events end team control.

A dropped ball between any number of players from both teams.

You're both wrong, play must be resumed with a scrum.

but after mid-morning tea.

I would hope that A2 is seriously, seriously hurt if play was stopped. My assumption is that the official that did this, did so at such a low level of basketball that no one would care how they resumed play. If an official did this at the HS level or above (even JV) then they should go back down and start over.

No book in front of me, but if my partner did such a thing I suppose I would go to the arrow.

And you would be wrong.

My hope is that an official who works anything above freshman ball would be able to give the correct answer to this scenario without having to look it up.

I'm tempted to suggest you should go back down and start over.

Perhaps you should go back and read post 4 . . .

Like.

Sounds like you never have your book in front of you or open.

It was a camp game with HS varsity players. My partners were thinking arrow, but I sold them on the fact that in this situation, I believe it fell under the umbrella of an "interrupted game." So given that Team A still had control, we opted for the point of interruption.

The collision was quite severe; my partner felt there might have been a concussion, so that's why he blew the whistle. But if he'd waited a second or two more, the ball was going to end up out of bounds, so we all agreed if we had it to do over again, we'd let the ball dribble out and call an OOB violation on B (based on the deflection).

The clinician who was working our court felt that we should have gone to the arrow because "there was no control." Sheesh. This proves why one needs to read through the rule and case books (cover to cover) at least once per season.

This scares me. Did he allow you to discuss it?

As for the original scenario, there's no difference here in who gets the ball. No need to wait if you think there's a concussion or serious injury. There's no imminent scoring opportunity to interrupt, just kill the play.

Whether you kill it with the ball bouncing or after it goes OOB, it's still going to be A's ball here. If A had touched it last, I still wouldn't worry about waiting. Let A keep the ball if they only lost it because A2 knocked himself out.

Mr. Stickler chimes in..
 

Just want to remind all of you who are below the NBA level, there is no clear definition of 'loose ball' and the term is meaningless in a rules discussion for FED and NCAA. Adam nailed it with his cite of 4-12-3 for FED and I think NCAA has a parallel ruling.

Sort of. We had just finished talking about a technical I issued for a rim chin-up (the critique was good: excellent call, poor reporting) and some other situations among the crew. And then this play in question came up as a bit of an afterthought. I was still shocked that the clinician and so many other folks felt we should have gone to the arrow. I made a polite token effort to counter, but then I got to that point when it was more prudent to simply nod, acknowledge, and discard. I knew I was right. Incidentally, the clinician was not a "first year on the staff" kind of guy. It was one of commissioner's senior officials.

As for your other point that Team A was going to get the ball regardless, that's a fair point. I didn't blow the play dead, but if I had been the calling official, this would have been a lot to think through in a very short amount of time. Given the kind of collision, I probably would have blown the play dead, too. Safety first.

Excellent points.

In indicator that you possess good judgment.

I had a similar situation once in a discussion with a local big dawg (won't say which city I was in at the time) regarding whether an attempt at the wrong basket is considered a "try." I pushed a little, but there was no need to brand myself.

You look down your nose at any official who would even briefly consider stopping play for an injury ... yet fail in your answer to this question miserably. You consider yourself too high of a level to stop play, yet it turns out you're too low a level to answer this simple question. Thanks for being today's lesson in irony.

Unlike all of you other distinguished gentlemen I don't imply that I know the rule book by heart...my apologies...but I do my best in between juggling college, career and family to know it fairly well although if I kicked this call it wouldn't be the first nor the last time...

of course now I can assure you that if this play comes up I will at least get this one right! That's a start right?

I wasn't picking on you for not knowing the rule... I was picking on you for getting on your high horse about the other official, when you didn't know the rule.

My horse can be high at times...