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

Can a referee instruct the bench to keep the clock running due to a blow out (>60points)? This is club representative basketball.

Asked by Australia over 11 years ago

There is no provision in NFHS rules for a running clock. Club or AAU traveling rules may allow for a running clock.

What is the ruling on this.
Team A inbounds from baseline . Team B touches the ball near division line. Team A2 also touches the ball, then the ball goes into back court, Team A2 recovers the inbounds and gains possession. Ruling Backcourt or no call

Asked by Carlos over 11 years ago

To have a backcourt violation a team must first achieve possession in their front court. There is no team possession on a throw in.

So, in your scenario Players B1 and A2 touch the ball, but neither have achieved possession. Therefore, no backcourt violation when A2 retrieves the ball in his backcourt.

But that's not basketball-why not have the two coaches arm wrestle-only the player holding the ball should be able to call a timeout-coaches should not be able to stand except during timeouts-tech foul otherwise- game is the players not coaches!

Asked by daveb over 12 years ago

I understand your point.  In nearly all sports, coaches make moves that help determine the outcome of games; time outs, call in plays etc.  I think the NFHS needs to decide if they want to completely eliminate the "everyone in the gym knows it is an intentional foul" being ignored or called as a common, or leave it unevenly called as it is.  In the past they have tried to issue guidelines, but the gray area for interpretation is a mile wide.  Don't know how much noise they hear about this issue, but NFHS has not settled on a good solution yet.

You are wise beyond your years. Thanks for the quick responses!

Asked by dhatch over 12 years ago

Thanks for the kind words!

Ref,
In our city league. A team hit a game winning three but the clock never started so it is not clear if he had enough time to shoot. The ref counted the basket and said it "looked" like it took less than two seconds. Should the shot count?

Asked by Typhoon over 11 years ago

The referee (as opposed to the other officials) has the responsibility to decide matters upon which the timer and scorekeeper disagree. Furthermore, "the referee shall make decisions on any points not specifically covered in the rulebook."

There is no explicit provision in the rule book to address the situation you describe. So, the referee has to decide what would be consistent with the intent of the rulebook.

Can another basketball over-rule another on a bad call, if he has the better angle to see what actually happened on the floor?

Asked by Karen over 12 years ago

There is no provision in the mechanics or rule books for NFHS.  In fact, although one official is designated as the "referee" and the other two are "umpire 1" and "umpire 2", the referee is not enpowered to overrule the others.  Here's how I handled this: In the pre-game I asked my partners to agree to this.  If they think I got the call wrong, approach me and tell me what you saw, and I will decide whether to overrule myself based on your input.  That way, we could undue a really bad missed call, but if I passed on a call for my own reasons (advantage disadvantage for example) I could ignore my partner's input.  Also, if I changed my call I could better explain to a coach why it was reversed.  Most of the people I worked with agreed to use this system.

3 second rule question: do both feet have to clear the key entirely for the player to be good, or is it like out of bounds, where one foot touching the line is enough? Thanks.

Asked by RodK over 12 years ago

The 3 second area (the paint) is defined by the outer edge of the lines.  Any part of your foot on the line puts you in the paint. 

The outer line on the court is out of bounds, so on a throw in the player who is throwing the ball in could step on the line before throwing in as long as the foot does not step on the court.