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

What's the call when a shot is taken, hits the rim, bounces into or lands in the back court and is first touched by someone from the team that made the shot? Free ball or violation?

Asked by lrwindy over 10 years ago

Team control ends when the ball is in flight on a try or tap for a goal. Since there is no team control, there is no backcourt violation. Play on...

If a player rebounds the ball and comes down with the ball and loses balance so that he touches the ground with the ball but does not dribble - is that considered a dribble so that he cannot dribble after that?

Asked by Coach Hoops over 10 years ago

If the player comes down with both hands on the ball it is double dribble. If the player has only one hand on top of the ball it is a dribble and he cannot dribble again.

If a player dribbles Andre picks it up with 2 hands and the other player touches the ball( not knocking it out of the others poccession) then can the player with the ball with 2 hands dribble again?

Asked by Chantoan over 10 years ago

No, an offensive player cannot regain the ability to dribble until another player touches the ball WHILE the original player no longer possesses the ball. So if A1 has continuous possession during the time that B1 touches the ball, A1 cannot dribble for the second time. A more likely call is if B1 touches the ball and pushes it in an opposite direction than A1 is holding it, it should be called a held ball (and go to the possession arrow).

Why doesn't traveling get called for jump stops when prior to the jump stop move the player has ball in hand, two feet down and no dribble. Just saw again in KY vs Louisville game.

Asked by madtownjumper over 10 years ago

I do not have an answer for you, just a possible excuse. NCAA players are so quick and crafty that even veteran officials make errors on traveling calls.

A player gets a steal, and start a 1 on 0 fast break, he's at opp 3 point line (no one within 20-30 feet). Player who had the ball stolen, start barking at the REF. The ref issues a Tech, however this removes our player advantage. Is this correct?

Asked by Ryan almost 10 years ago

You are correct. As soon as the technical foul is called the ball is dead, unless the shot has left a shooter's hands.

There is 1.2 seconds left in game. Your fouled on a three point attempt you miss first two third shot is shot to get rebound ref says never hits rim no time runs off clock he reverses call that he did hit rim what happens?

Asked by Greg over 10 years ago

This is horrible officiating and there is no provision to fix this, so the referee has to do the best he possibly can do. If I were the referee and I thought that my crew erred and the ball really hit the rim, I would think the following:1) the whistle blew and stopped the clock before it started when the official thought the ball missed the rim. Therefore, no time should have expired.2) if there is an inadvertent whistle during a time when there is no possession, it can only be resolved by the possession arrow. Reset the clock to 1.2 and go to the possession arrow.3) I think that is the best that can be done in a lousy referee-caused situation.

Is there a point where yelling ball, ball, ball becomes unsportsmanlike conduct or some other foul? For instance they seem to be yelling it as loud as they possibly can.

Asked by Grahmm over 10 years ago

There is no specific provision in the rule book as to how loud players are allowed to be. It is a judgement call. If I thought it was excessive I would stop the game, warn the coach and warn the players and then start issuing technical fouls. Unfortunately, this behavior might intimidate young players, but at the high school level it probably will not work very well.