Ask my boys, I do a mean Electric Slide. After all, I was only 25 in 1976.

MTD, Sr.

The throwin didn't go directly inbounds?????

This is an endline throw-in and not the actual throw-in pass.

That would be fine if the ball were still along the endline. Once beyond the corner, it is no longer along the endline as required.

If there is no teammate outside the endline, is it not then, by default, an errant throw-in pass?

With some humor spliced in, I think we're waaaaaayyyy overthinking this. This happens all the time. Just smile and either pass or deflect it back to the thrower who is OOB. If the thrower gives me that look that says, "uh, should I give this to you?" then I just start walking slowly forward and give a little underhanded 'go ahead' motion, which almost always works.

I even see this happen in college games on TV from time to time. After a basket the thrower is sometimes thinking about the next play downcourt and almost instinctively passes the ball to the trail official. And guess what? The trail just passes it back.

Or I'll just tap it back. When it happens it always happens immediately upon disposal.

The vast majority of the time, this occurs in a bad JV game where the players don't even know how to line up for a free throw. I just tap it back to them and go on.

If its near me I'll tap it back towards them with a hand or foot. If its not within reach, I will usually wait to start my count until they retrieve it but start immediately. For competitive upper level games I may chose not to do this if I feel they should know better but this usually only happens with JV and below or with schools who barely field a team so they don't really have experienced players (and are usually getting blown out).