Wrong-direction jurisdiction
 

Four minutes left, tie game, high school-aged players, 2-man crew.

A1 secures an offensive rebound near the free-throw line, turns and unwittingly drives downcourt toward Team B's basket. He makes it all the way to the hoop without a whistle and converts a layup.

At this point, play is blown dead in order to ensure Team A inbounds the ball and Team B is credited with two points.

Team A players and coach rightfully question why there was no whistle for a backcourt violation. The only explanation was that the T, then transitioning to L once A1 decided to head the wrong way, was caught off guard and didn't put it together until it was too late.

Two questions:
1.) Could you stretch this under the "counting/canceling a score" provision of the CE umbrella and wipe out the hoop (and the egg off the T's face) by saying it should have been backcourt and awarding Team B the ball at the spot of the violation?
2.) Is this a situation where you, as the L, would whistle the violation from 35-40 feet away once it became clear your partner wasn't putting it together; or is that something you just let him live/die with because it happened right in front of him and WAY out of your coverage area?

1. no

2. yes

+1

This is not some judgment play. It is a clear violation where one partner goes brain dead. This is not the type of play that falls under "let your partner live or die with it". There is no credible reason not to call the violation.

Would you cancel a basket if an obvious travel or illegal dribble was missed? Would you retroactively call a travel?

Agree. If I see this and am certain that a violation occurs, I am going to get it if my partner goes brain dead.

However, I'm not sure that I would be certain in most cases. It's been a long time since I've worked 2man, but if I'm the lead I really don't think I'm going to be looking at the action near mid-court.

If a player grabs an offensive rebound in his paint and then heads in the opposite direction to the opponent's basket, what else is there to look at? The other 9 players are standing around with WTF looks on their faces. 2-man or 3-man, you should always know where the ball is on the court.

In other words, they are minions from McDonald's happy meals!

For some reason I thought the OP said he secured possession of the rebound near mid-court. After re-reading, I agree that I would likely have picked this up if he secured possession in the lane and then took off the other way across the length of the court.

1. If you administer a throw-in to the wrong team and it inbounds the ball and scores, can you cancel the points and give the ball to the proper team?

2. Honestly, it would depend upon who my partner is. It seems to me that some guys need to have egg on their face and I'm not willing to bail them out. Others are wonderful people who can just be in over their heads on certain games or aren't good with the oddball plays and need some help once in a while. I don't mind throwing them a life preserver. I know that answer won't be universally popular and probably will get criticized as unprofessional, but we all know guys who have huge egos that we wouldn't mind seeing be at the center of a colossal screw-up. The risk is that you could go down with them, if you are on the game even though it wasn't your call.

I think, in most cases, making the call would be sufficiently embarrassing to the guys with big egos. I'm not sure I'd want my game to land in the crapper to prove a point, though.

I'd probably make the call, although I can imagine the odd scenario where I'd leave a partner out to dry on this one.

Yeah, there's a good chance things could get weird in the locker room, but in the long run it's the best thing for the game and you. I would think an assignor would praise you for bailing out your partner and the game. Hell, we all have brain farts (some worse than others).

I would have no problem making the call, or having my partner make the call. In the end its about getting it right. If I make that call and my partner wants to gripe about it, first I'm asking why he didn't get it, then I'm packing my suitcase up and scratching him off my list.

However, there is no way to retroactively go back and call the violation if it is missed by both.

The only way I can imagine not making this call is if my partner had already tried to chew my ass for making a call in his primary. I think that's what Nevada is talking about, too.

This seems to me an apples an oranges comparison -- you've changed it to restarting play the wrong way instead of a late call. I'm not a hoops ref (I do soccer -- in which the ref unamiguously could and should make the late correction in the OP, so long as play is not restarted, but could not correct your scenario as play was restarted). But I'm curious -- what *is* the criteria for when it is "too late" to make a call under BB rules?

It's a bit fuzzy as far as how long is too late, but going back and calling a BC violation after the player has dribbled half the length of the court and scored is universally considered "too late."

A good rule of thumb (but not exhaustive), I suppose, is that you can't go back and call it after the ball has become dead for another reason.

Here, the ball is dead when the player scores.

Likewise, if the player had dribbled and a defender (for some reason) had gone down and fouled him (or knocked the ball OOB) instead, you could not go back and get the BC violation.

Thanks for the replies, fellas.

I was the L in this situation and agree I should've have just called it once it was clear my partner wasn't putting it together.

I happened to be tableside, too, so it was me who was left with the Team A bench asking, "Isn't that a backcourt violation?" to which the short answer is an unfortunate "Yes, but it's too late."

This wasn't, however, a case of me trying to screw my partner or have him look stupid (though I did find myself agreeing with the posts about partners who deserve/have earned that). He's a good friend and good official who was just back from camp and talking about how they hammered home "If it's not in your area, just trust your partner and let it go."

Clearly this one does not fall under that umbrella, though. I could've saved us both some mess by just dialing that one in from distance.

I had a wrong basket scenario this winter. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your perspective), there was no BC violation to miss.

MS Boys, final game of the season, less than 2 minutes to go in the game. Team A gets confused in its back court somehow after an inbounds and immediately shoots at the wrong basket. :eek: It took me by surprise, but I finally realize what's going on and start a 10-second count (and I'm hoping and praying I get to 10 before someone scores into the wrong basket).

After another Team A missed shot at the wrong basket, the rebound somehow manages to bounce untouched over the half court line and Team B recovers it. Since there's no team control until someone secures the rebound, there's no BC violation, and Team B now has the ball in its own back court. The Team B player then drives for an uncontested layup... into the wrong basket, much to the chagrin of his coach. :D I end up whistling play dead, reporting a basket for team A to the table, and send Team B on its way in the proper direction.

In different game, a MS girls coach yelled at me for calling a BC violation on an opposing player for going the wrong direction. She wanted me to let the player keep going until she scored in the wrong basket. I just shook my head :rolleyes: and thought to myself, Coach, you're getting the ball back, what are you complaining about?

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That said, barring a situation where I had a partner who was absolutely adamant about staying in one's primary, I'd call the BC violation on this as the Lead after giving the Trail a chance to call it. I'd have no problem calling this in case my partner was so surprised by what's happening that he or she has a brain fart about the BC violation associated with going the wrong way across half court.

Game, partner, self...

Make the call

There is a YouTube video that keeps coming back over and over again that proves #2.

If your partner misses this as a violation, then wouldn't he probably is think he is the new Lead and it's your half court line to call anyway as the "new Trail".

If I'm lead and the player starts dribbling wrong direction across the half court line, I'm whistling this dead once it's clear my partner is confused and not calling it.