Common Misconceptions Pt. 2

Backcourt Violation

During games this situation always seems to come up. A player moving from his/her defensive end to his/her offensive end with the ball wants to pass the ball back to a teammate. That teammate however, needs to be established in the team’s offensive half of the court, also known as the “frontcourt.”

Once the ball has been brought into the frontcourt it cannot go back to the defensive end, the “backcourt,” without being touched by an opponent.

- If team control has been established in the offensive end of the court and the ball goes back into the defensive half of the court a player on the offense cannot be the first to touch the ball if a teammate was the last person to touch the ball. If the offensive team touches the ball it will be ruled a backcourt violation.

- While in player control and team control in its backcourt, a player is not allowed to cause the ball to go from his/her team's backcourt to frontcourt and then return to the backcourt, unless the ball was touched by the opposing team last before return to the backcourt.

A common situation that always seems to come up during a game is when an offensive player establishes position in the frontcourt with the ball and then the player passes the ball to his/her teammate. The teammate jumps in the air in hopes of gaining position in the frontcourt, but because he/she jumped in the air with his/her previous position being in the backcourt they still are considered to have backcourt status. This means as soon as the player touches the ball it will be ruled a backcourt violation.

For more information refer to the NFHS Rule Book, Rule 9 Section 9

Here is an example

A1 is dribbling is his/her backcourt and throws a pass to the frontcourt. While standing in A’s frontcourt: (a) A2 (A1’s teammate) or (b) B3 (A1’s opponent) touches the ball and deflects it back to A’s backcourt where it touches the floor. A2 recovers the ball in the backcourt. Ruling: In (a), it is a violation. The ball was in control of A1 and Team A, and a player from A was the last to touch the ball in the frontcourt and a player of A was the first to touch it after it returned to the back court. In (b), legal play. A Team A player was not the last to touch the ball in the frontcourt. Team A is entitled to a new 10-second count.

-- As an official we are taught to look for “first touch, last touch.” This means we are looking for who had possession of the ball first and who was the last person to touch the ball before the ball makes its way back into the backcourt.

Self-Pass

Something common I find from the games that I ref in and play in are fans and players yelling for something called a self-pass. The situation where this is most common is off an attempted shot.

A player attempts a shot and the that player realizes the ball is not going to hit the rim so he/she goes and catches the own rebound. Many people believe that this is illegal. This situation, however, is not.

- An attempted shot is throwing the ball into a team's own basket to score two or three points. It is considered a try for goal when the player has the ball and in the official’s judgment is throwing or attempting to throw for goal. The ball does not necessarily have to leave the player’s hand as a foul could prevent release of the ball. Also the ball does not have to hit the rim to be consider a shot.

- The shot attempt begins when the player starts the motion before the release of the ball.  

For more information refer to the NFHS Rule Book, Rule 4 Section 41

So, really, a self-pass is rarely called when there is an attempted shot. But the self-pass does exist in different context.  An example of that could be when a player throws the ball over an opponent in an attempt to gain an advantage and pretty much passing it to himself/herself, this is a violation.