Coach Knight on Walking/Officials

[feldspar]

I know that you have a great deal of experience and expertise on these matters. Can you help me understand why these "obvious" traveling violations are not called?

P.S. Sorry, our posts crossed, you've already answered my question, thanks.

Ask 50 officials, and at least 45 of them will say that traveling is the hardest thing to call in basketball.

You have to, in a matter of less than a second, look at the players feet, determine which foot is the pivot foot, then track that pivot foot while also tracking the ball and watching for contact.

All the while, not having the luxury of sitting on a couch watching slow-mo replay like Bobby Knight.

Officials certainly do miss travel calls. No doubt about that. But they also know the travel rule better than anyone else on the court or anyone in the stands.

Consider for a moment that there is the possibility that some of the travels you scream for on TV actually, by rule, aren't travels at all.

[Fish80]

Ask 50 officials, and at least 45 of them will say that traveling is the hardest thing to call in basketball.

You have to, in a matter of less than a second, look at the players feet, determine which foot is the pivot foot, then track that pivot foot while also tracking the ball and watching for contact.

All the while, not having the luxury of sitting on a couch watching slow-mo replay like Bobby Knight.

Officials certainly do miss travel calls. No doubt about that. But they also know the travel rule better than anyone else on the court or anyone in the stands.

Consider for a moment that there is the possibility that some of the travels you scream for on TV actually, by rule, aren't travels at all.

Thanks. Personally, I scream at the TV much more often over hard contact underneath the basket that isn't called. A lot of monkey business goes undetected in the trenches. We perpetrate as much of that monkey business as does the opposition. I recall seeing Sheldon deploy some unusual tactics on more than one occasion.

The traveling call is not a particular pet peeve of mine, just another interesting part of the game.

[Rudy]

Jump stops are often a source of fan disgruntlement. The rule that covers it is here

"Section 68. Traveling
. . .
Art. 3. A player who catches the ball while moving or dribbling may stop and
establish a pivot foot as follows:
a. When both feet are off the playing court and the player lands:
1. Simultaneously on both feet, either may be the pivot foot;
2. On one foot followed by the other, the first foot to touch shall be the
pivot foot;
3. On one foot, the player may jump off that foot and simultaneously
land on both; neither foot can be the pivot foot.
b. When one foot is on the playing court:
1. That foot shall be the pivot foot when the other foot touches in a
step;
2. The player may jump off that foot and simultaneously land on both;
neither foot can then be the pivot foot."

So if a player picks up his dribble, he can take one step to a jump stop, and as long as he doesn't move either foot (except to go up for a shot or pass), he hasn't travelled. (68.3.b.2.) If he goes into his jump stop from his dribble before he takes the first step, either foot can be used as the pivot. (68.3.a.1.)

What seems to be ignored routinely, but is a no-harm-no-violation situation IMO, is the guards catching the ball out front followed by a one-two step. The refs then let them use either foot as a pivot. The one-two step is apparently treated as a jump stop (both feet simultaneously).

The speed of the game and angles of sight excuse most missed calls. I forgive them usually. The ones that are really bad are where they don't see what happened and assume something bad anyway, like the Greg Monroe T when the ref had his back to the bench, or the T call against McFarland in the Wake/Clemson game. The latter was particularly bad because it seems they looked at the replay and confirmed the double-T call.

[calltheobvious]

In addition to all of the points Feldspar made about the difficulties of refereeing travels, there's one he didn't mention: officials are trained to "referee the defense," which means that our primary focus is normally not on the feet.

People may complain that this principle needs revising, but I can promise you that if the instructions changed so that officials were focusing first on travels and second on fouls, you'd be much, much unhappier with the results.

On a related note, though some of it is certainly explained by the entertainment effect, one of the reasons that fewer travels are called in the NBA is that officials are even more focused on refereeing the defense than the guys at the college level. This is because in order to call tougher plays you have to be more sound in the fundamentals.

[Edouble]

Ask 50 officials, and at least 45 of them will say that traveling is the hardest thing to call in basketball.

Will the other 5 say that their grandmother is the hardest thing to call (because she just goes on and on)?

[feldspar]

Will the other 5 say that their grandmother is the hardest thing to call (because she just goes on and on)?

Nice.