"Traveling out of bounds" (Video)

[BoomerSooner]

Originally Posted by Reffing Rev.

I debate whether he did not have a foot over the 3-foot area...and I despise Texas.

As my name would suggest, I share your dislike for the shortbushorns, but I initially found myself wondering how far the player actually was from the designated spot. If anyone can successfully argue that he was still on designated spot (see next paragraph as to why I think it was the right call), the incorrect signal is even more egregious because it becomes more difficult to explain to the lay person the rule that the official felt was being violated. It is easy to see that he moved his "pivot" foot in excess of what would be allowed had this not been a throw-in and combined with a travel signal, why would the average fan question this?

Here's my case to support that he had left the designated spot:
1. The distance between the 3 point lines measured along the baseline is 41.5 feet (50 feet of court, 4.25 feet between sideline and 3 point line in the corner on both sides so 50ft - (4.5ft*2) = 41.5 feet).
2. The lettering along the baseline identifies the venue as the Consol Energy Center, which is 18 letters in length. As the lettering appears to start and end the same distance from the 3 point line on both sides, it is likely that a monospaced font was used (also note that it is in all caps making it easier to use a monospaced font in the absence of a lower-case L or a capital I). If we agree a monospaced font was used, then we know all of the letters are the same width.
3. The tricky step is that I don't know the exact distance from the 3 point line that the lettering starts/stops. I do feel relatively certain, however, that the word "ENERGY" falls entirely within the lane lines extended (I'm comfortable with this assumption because it would make the spacing of the word fit easier and have a better feel). Since the lane is 12 feet in width, the letters cannot measure more than 2 feet each in width. As spacing should be consistent between each character of a monospaced font, we can actually excluded calculations for spacing for the purposes of determining how far he actually moved.
4. The initial location of the player when the official handed/tossed the player the ball was at the first "E" in Center. Assuming the designated spot is located at the center point of the "E" (the player had one foot on each side of the point I would call the center of the "E") then 3 feet to either side would be the end of the adjacent letter on either side. There is 1 foot of "E" on each side of the center point and the adjacent letter is 2 feet, thus when the player was standing entirely on the "T" in center before releasing the ball, he would be more than 3 feet away from the designated spot, and thus a violation (but not a travel).

Now that I've gone at great lengths to support this being a violation, I do have a question for everybody else here that could change my opinion of this play. Do you consider the designated spot to be literally as "spot" as I did when supporting this being a violation? Is "spot" really just single point in space or is more like a player sized dot (e.g. in this case the entire area within the players frame is the designated spot and thus no violation as long as he has a foot on or over the area within 3 feet of the entire width of the "E", which in this case would extend half-way across the letter "T")?

[Adam]

Designated spot is three feet wide. Normally, the center of that spot is where the thrower is handed the ball. He only gets to go about 18 inches in either direction, but he also only needs to keep one foot on or over the spot.

[MD Longhorn]

Egregious Longhorn fan here... given that a normal stance with legs spread is just shy of 3 feet wide, we should be looking to see if his right foot moved significantly past where his left foot started.

And as much as I don't want to say this... I think it's clear he did.

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by Adam

Designated spot is three feet wide. Normally, the center of that spot is where the thrower is handed the ball. He only gets to go about 18 inches in either direction, but he also only needs to keep one foot on or over the spot.

NFHS 4-42-6: The designated throw-in spot is 3 feet wide with no depth limitation
and is established by the official prior to putting the ball at the thrower’s disposal.
NOTE: The thrower must keep one foot on or over the spot until the ball is released. The
traveling and dribbling rules are not in effect for a throw-in.

Lets' say that the ball is handed, or bounced, to the inbounder, who, for sake of argument, has his feet eighteen inches apart while standing in the center of the three foot wide designated spot. Let's say that he wants to move left. He can move both feet nine inches to the left with no restriction (he's still in that three foot wide spot). Now he has to keep one foot in that spot (let's say he keeps the right foot there) but he still may move the left foot as far as he can without moving the right foot (still in the spot). He can probably take a three foot stride to his left, so in total he has moved about three and a half feet to his left, all legal. As long as he keeps one foot over that three foot wide designated spot, his other feet can move, left to right, legally, in an, almost, seven foot wide area.

Picture a really tall kid in one of the free throw lane spaces. As long as he keeps on foot in that three foot wide lane space, he can probably take one stride left, or right, and almost touch the adjacent lane mark. That's more than nine feet, including the marks themselves. So an average size kid can easily legally "cover" seven feet (left to right), as long as he keeps one foot in that three foot wide area.