Local referees share thoughts on basketball's least understood rules

High school sports officials have a tough and often thankless job. Night after night, season after season, they are asked to learn and know the rules, officiate games, events, and competitions in a confident, appropriate manner. They are to ensure that all participants understand and comply with game rules and assess penalties when needed, all the while often taking a verbal berating from coaches and fans.

With high school basketball season well underway in the Flathead Valley and throughout Montana and beyond, the referees are once again on the court assessing the usual fouls, backcourt violations and more while also enforcing the lesser-known rules that have been known to stump fans and coaches alike.

With the ever-increasing speed and talent evident in today’s high-school sports, officials are working harder than ever to keep up with the action.

It’s a tough job, just ask Todd Fiske. The the Director of Region 1 for the Montana Officials Association, Fiske oversees sports officials in Flathead, Lincoln and Sanders Counties. While Fiske says he feels most coaches and fans are pretty knowledgeable about the rules, he admits there are situations that can be problematic.

“I think most fans are pretty savvy about their general knowledge of the rules but their passion for a team or a player on a team can be a recipe for great emotion. Sometimes, that can make people go blank on things they should know. There are also some rules that don’t come into play all that often,” he said. “A lot of these plays are happening in fractions of a second. Kids these days are so athletic that by the time what has happened during a play registers in your minwd, the play has already moved on. It’s not an easy job.”

Fiske recently asked his top basketball officials to share some of the rules that people sometimes have a hard time understanding during local high school basketball games.

Here’s what they had to say:

- It is legal for a ball to touch the sides and top of a rectangle backboard so long as it does not make contact with any of the support apparatus. A ball could even roll along the top of the backboard and fall through the hoop and the basket would count.

- There is only one jump ball, and that is at the beginning of the game. Everything else that people tend to call a jump ball is actually a held ball and possession is determined by the arrow at the scorer’s table. The player jumping can touch the ball twice on the jump ball, but the jumper cannot be the first player to possess the ball.

- The traveling rule is one of the most misunderstood rules in basketball. To start a dribble, the ball must be released before the pivot foot is lifted. On a pass or a shot, the pivot foot may be lifted, but may not return to the floor before the ball is released. A player may slide on the floor while trying to secure a loose ball until that player’s momentum stops. At that point that player cannot attempt to get up or rollover. A player securing a ball while on the floor cannot attempt to stand up unless that player starts a dribble. A player in this situation may also pass, shoot, or call a timeout. If the player is flat on his or her back, that player may sit up without violating.

- The backcourt 10-second count continues even if the ball is deflected by a defender.

- A moving screen is not a violation, unless there is contact. Players setting a screen can move so long as they are not creating an advantage for the offense by making contact with a defender. There is no rule against moving screens. If the screener gets to a spot first, that spot is theirs. If the screener alters the path of a defender by throwing out their hip or using their hands or body, that creates an offensive advantage and is a foul.

- Basketball is a contact sport. Incidental contact does occur and it is not a foul.

- A defensive player does not have to be stationary to take a charge. All a defensive player has to do to draw a charge is to establish a legal guarding position. That position can be while they are moving. A defensive player can be moving backwards while the offensive player is moving to the basket and draw a player control foul if the offensive players runs them over. The real test comes when an offensive player goes into the shooting motion and a defender tries to take position in front of him. That comes down to which player got to the spot first. It can happen very quickly and make for a tough call.

- When a shooter is called for a player control foul and they make the basket, that basket does not count.

- Lifting the pivot foot is not a travel unless that foot is set back down. The player can either shoot or pass, but if the pivot foot is lifted and then goes back down on the court, it is travelling.

- A player can recover a fumble of their own dribble. If a player loses control of their dribble or drops the ball, they can pick it up and keep dribbling, even if it looks like it creates an advantage.

- Over-the-back is nowhere to be found in the rulebook. It is perfectly legal for a player to reach over the top of another to secure a rebound. A taller player could reach his arms completely over the shoulders of a shorter player, without making contact, to grab a rebound. Even if there is contact, it is once again all about whether or not it creates an advantage or disadvantage. It may look awful, but it is not against the rules.

- There is nothing illegal about a high dribble. Players can dribble as high as they like as long as their hand stays on top of the ball. The hand can be on the side of the ball as well. Anything below that should be called a carry. It may look strange, but there is nothing wrong with it.

- You cannot, absolutely cannot, travel while dribbling. It is impossible.

- There are times when no call at all is the best call. Two players can dive for a loose ball and collide and there is nothing wrong with that. There should be no whistle in that situation. The same is often true during a battle for a rebound. Again, basketball is a contact sport.

- Over-and-back can be a tough one. All three points, including both feet and the ball must cross the half court line to be in the front court. A player could have both feet behind half court and dribbling the ball over the line and can still retreat into the back court. A player could have one foot and the ball over the line and still be in the same position.

- Three second count in the lane can also be tough. The three second count stops on a shot and during the battle for a rebound and resets if the offensive team regains possession. It’s all about gaining an advantage. Sometimes we will let a player have one foot in the lane battling for position for slightly longer than three seconds, but if the ball is passed down to them, then we will blow the whistle. There was no real advantage until they received the ball. There is some judgment involved there.

- A player can go out of bounds and be the first player to touch the ball so long as they establish both feet back inbounds before touching the ball.

- A kicked ball has to be intentional. If a player tries to make a pass past a defender and they throw it off their knee or foot, it is not a kicked ball unless the defender caused the contact with the ball.

- A player can collect their own air ball. There is a judgment call there, though. An official has to determine that the air ball was not an intentional act.

- If an inbounder is holding the ball over the out of bounds line, the defender can legally slap the ball out of their hands or even grab the ball for a held ball. This is a risky play, though because if contact is made with the ball while it is behind the out of bounds line, that is a delay of game, two of which by a team in a contest constitute a technical foul. Also, if a defender makes contact with an inbounding player and fouls them while they are behind the out-of-bounds line, that can be called an intentional foul and award the inbounding team two free throws and possession of the ball.