I noticed this while watching some of the NCAA games. Say that Team #1 makes a basket. Team #2 is advancing the ball back up the court. One of the referees walks up the sideline as the player advances with the ball, and the referee swings his arm from his chest out to a 90 degree angle from his body. He does this until the ball crosses the half-court stripe. What is he doing, and why?
Counting seconds. The players have only a certain amount of time to get the ball across the line or they’re charged with a backcourt violation and the other team gets the ball. (This rule predates the shot clock, which makes it mostly obsolete-although I’ve seen this called in full-court press situations.)
He is counting to 10. The swinging of the arm lets everyone know that he is doing this, so that he won’t be accused of counting too fast or too slow. If you have not advanced the ball past the half-court stripe at the end of 10 seconds, the opposing team gains possession of the ball.
I’ve always thought it seems like they should have a clock for this, too. I’ve seen several times on SportsCenter or the like where they show someone get called for this violation when the game clock shows that only like 7 seconds have expired while the ref was counting to 10…
FWIW, the NBA now has an eight second for bringing the ball forward as of the 2001 season, mostly in an attempt to increasing scoring, which had been lagging in the preceeding seasons. I don’t think it really has had much of an impact on the style of play in the NBA.
While this rule was probably more important in the pre-shot clock days, it does ensure that the game keeps up to a certain offensive tempo, even in a defensive minded style of play.
The 8 second rule hasn’t had much of an effect in the NBA simply because most teams don’t press on a regular basis. Therefore, the offense simply makes it over in 8 seconds and then uses the other 2 seconds to continue setting up isolation plays.
On a side note, women’s college basketball has actually done away with the 10 second rule, which strikes me as completely illogical. It essentially undermines a lot of the value of pressing. With no time limit to cross half-court a press loses most of the ability to create a frenetic, rushed passing game that benefits an aggressive defense. Rather than having to push the ball up the court, an offense can take 15-20 seconds of slow advancing to break the press.
While we’re at it, isn’t there some other requirement, once they’ve crossed the center line? Something like, “if the defenders are defending you closely, you have to get the ball past some other line.” I think there are lines near the out-of-bounds line, about halfway between the center line and the end of the court. Maybe this was a rule, but isn’t anymore, or maybe I’m just making this up.
Anyone know what I’m babbling about?
The center line is the only “have to pass by a certain time limit” line. Perhaps you are thinking of the shot clock? You have to attempt a shot (and have it released from your hands) prior to the shot clock going off. The shot clock only resets if said shot attempt hits the rim.
There can also be a 3 second violation if you stay in the key too long or a 5 second violation for holding the ball too long while being closely defended. Otherwise, there are no time penalties.
In college basketball, the officials CANNOT use the shot clock to determine a 10-second violation. It is always a hand count. I think that’s because if the team with the ball calls a timeout, they get another 10 seconds to inbound the ball.
Or if you inbound the ball in the frontcourt, you can throw it into the backcourt, but you have to advance it into the frontcourt in 10 seconds again.
The 5 second closely guarded rule doesn’t apply in the backcourt.
Mullinator: No, I understand the shot clock and the 3 second violation. This was something I never really understood. The 5 second violation sounds about right, but I thought they had to get the ball forward about half way from the center line, even if they were dribbling. When you say “holding the ball too long”, do you mean without dribbling? If it’s even with dribbling, then this is proabably what I’m thinking of, and it probably just happended that the player the ball was passed to was farther upcourt. Maybe there were short lines nearby for some other purpose.
This was 20 - 25 years ago, and I’m not sure if it’s the same rule now.