Backcourt Violation?

[DinwiddieProud]

I witnessed this last night. Team A player takes the inbounds pass, dribbles to half court. Half court trap catches him at mid court. One foot on each side of the half court line. Continues to dribble with feet in this position. Ball appeared to bounce on the line and probably on both sides of the line.

The play ended before a call could be made, with respect to a backcourt violation. (Back to that in a second). So what is the rule, or the determining factor(s) here?

How the play ended. Player A picked up his dribble and clearly traveled. Far side ref blew his whistle, and indicated traveling. Near side ref blew his whistle, and indicated that the Team A coach called time out. Time out was granted. Who was first? Judgement call, no complaint with this.

 

[Hampton Roads 6]

I have never seen a time out call not granted, regardless of situation, in all my years of basketball.

 

[gymrat10]

My take with the info provided in the OP:

First, as pertains to the question of backcourt,one must know that, when dribbling, the player must have all three (3) points-both feet and the ball-across the mid-court line (going from backcourt to frontcourt) to have frontcourt status. Until that is obtained, any step back across or on the line, or dribbling of the ball in front or backcourt, would NOT constitute a violation.

Second, in respect to the time out being called, my guess is the coach, whereupon seeing his player in a trapped position, verbally communicated a time out request to the nearest official. There is always a small delay at best between the exact time the coach calls a time out and when the refs whistle actually registers with those of us in the stands. This is a fairly common occurrence. As to whether or not the player traveled or not prior to the TO being called is strictly a judgment on the part of the officials.

Hope this helps.

 

[DinwiddieProud]

Yes sir, no argument at all with the time out. The travel was obvious, but the coach was 10 feet from the ref, so little doubt he called the time out as soon as he picked up his dribble.

I was just curious about the backcourt rule. I don't think I've ever seen this situation before. There is usually little doubt about the call during a game. I think every time I've seen it called it was loosing the ball, or steeping over the line.

This one was pretty close to a "bang bang" play. And then a lot of crowd reaction about traveling vs timeout. But, like I mentioned, that part was purely a judgement call. It just got me to thinking about when backcourt was backcourt. Thanks for the explanation.

 

[FBRef]

gymrat is correct. When dribbling from BC to FC, the ball is not in the FC until both feet and the ball are all three in the FC.

During the dribble is the ONLY time this rule applies. For example, if a player is straddling the division line while holding the ball, it's a BC violation if h lifts the foot in the BC and then puts it back down in the BC.

 

[gymrat10]

Gee...looks like I'm 2 for 2 in the eyes of FBRef this week...whatdya know

 

[FBRef]

You da man!

 

[gymrat10]

Ha ha...2 rules I knew anyway