Basketball Referee

Basketball Referee

Rndballref

20 Years Experience

Chicago, IL

Male, 60

For twenty years I officiated high school, AAU and park district basketball games, retiring recently. For a few officiating is the focus of their occupation, while for most working as an umpire or basketball referee is an avocation. I started ref'ing to earn beer money during college, but it became a great way to stay connected to the best sports game in the universe. As a spinoff, I wrote a sports-thriller novel loosely based on my referee experiences titled, Advantage Disadvantage

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Last Answer on September 20, 2019

Best Rated

A player jumps from outside the court line, catches the ball mid air and lands inside, is it still out of bounds? And with backcourt violation?

Asked by Max about 10 years ago

A player who alights in the air is considered to have court position from where his feet last touched the court. If the player jumps from out of bounds and touches the ball before he touches the court inbounds, it is a violation. There are 2 exceptions to this rule: 1) a defender who leaps from his front court to intercept a pass and lands in his backcourt, and 2) a defender who leaps from his front court to intercept a throw in and lands in his backcourt.

Further to the backcourt question, once team A (offense) achieves front court status, and then team A dribbler attempts a pass to his team mate, if it hits his team mate's hand (but not in control of teammate) and goes backcourt, is this a violation?

Asked by MJ over 11 years ago

Yes, it is a backcourt violation because team A never lost team control.

a player dribbles the ball, before going out of bound he releases (untouch) the ball, and get out of bound. After he gets back in court from out of bound, can he pick up the ball and continue the dribble?

Asked by Antuxity over 10 years ago

It is a violation for a player to leave the floor for an unauthorized reason. The ball is dead when the player goes out of bounds and is awarded to the opposite team.

A1 is shooting the front end of a 1 and. B.1 enters the lane before the release. Before the shot goes in the basket, A4 enters the lane from behind the 3 point line. The free throw is made. Does this constitute a simultaneous lane violation

Asked by Rob almost 11 years ago

If there are two violations by players in lane spaces the 2nd is ignored.

If the 2nd violation is from beyond the arc both are penalized and you go to the possession arrow.

can an official Basketball match start with 1 referee on the court?

Asked by Samer Taha over 10 years ago

While it is not ideal, a game can begin with 1 referee. It seems that it happens occasionally at the lower levels but rarely at the Varsity level because if the Varsity crew is short a ref, they will invite a ref from the pre-lim (usually sophomore) game to stay and work the game with them.

When I have had to ref myself, I find that play under the basket gets rough because the players know that you can only follow the ball. You also miss a lot of line calls.

For NFHS, the new rule for the end of a free throw includes the ball striking the backboard. Can free throw shooters now bank the ball directly back to themselves?

Asked by Dunkster about 10 years ago

I believe that although the free throw ends when the ball hits the backboard, it is still a violation if the free thrower fails to hit the ring.

Followup "intentional foul". Why not declare any non-shooting foul in the last 2 mins of a game a "intentional foul"? But I'd keep both the shots and ball; if just the ball, the fouling team gets the chance to get the ball back on the inbounds.

Asked by daveb over 11 years ago

That's a good idea too.  But playing devil's advocate, many coaches like the strategy of being able to slow the game down when you're losing by a few points by putting the other team at the line and stopping the clock.  Late fouling in a tight game shifts the game to a chess match (and free throw pressure cooker) and I believe many coaches like having the ability to get back in a game.  This wouldn't be such an issue if we had a shot clock for the entire game.