Whistle Rap

   Thanks  so much for those of you who volunteer  to  referee.  Our  program will quickly crumble without  hustling volunteers.  We  do not expect you to know all the rules  just make your best  judgement. 
    We will use this  post to occasionally  clarify  some rules that are often misunderstood.

1)  OVER AND BACK.    To be over and back, a  team needs to have control in the front court, when dribbling over the  half court line and to be precise,  the inner  plain of the line closest to the basket in your front court,  Now both feet and the ball have to be over in the front court,  so if you are dribbling and  the ball is in the back court and your feet are in the front court, it is still not "over" thus you can step  back over the line and not be  "over and back"   but once the ball and both feet are in the front court,  any part of your body or ball touching the line or back court is OVER AND BACK.
 If  a  foot or  ball is in the front court than comes back, 90 percent of the people in the gym  will think it is over and back and if you   call it that way,  hardly no one will complain. and we will support that decision,  however  those 90 percent will be wrong.  Now another way this comes into play is when you are passing the ball in from the base or side line, and  you are in the front court, when you pass the ball there is no  individual control.  so you  can pass the ball into the back court from  your  spot  behind the end or sideline as you pass the ball in.    That pass can be tipped  by  a  team in the front court, you can chase the ball into the back court and it is not an over and back violation.  You must have control in the front court before it can be OVER AND BACK.
(hope that doesn't make it more confusing.)

2) If you are dribbling along the sideline or base line, and you touch the ball while in bounds than you release the ball and step out of bounds,   if you can reenter the court with both feet, than you can continue  dribbling the ball or grab it. It is not a    line violation, Now if your dribble has ended  it could be double dribble, but not out of bounds.

3)  Rebounding your own shot,  This one is missed a lot.  When the ball leaves your hand on a shot, there is no control, and anyone can  rebound it,  EVEN IF IT IS AN AIRBALL  the shooter can grab the rebound.  Now it is the judgement of the referee  to determine if it is a shot, a pass  or a fumble, in the  case of a fumble or pass the  passer/shooter  cannot  be the first to touch it.