We hope you are all well and ready to come back to basketball after the holiday break FIBA has made changes to their Official Basketball Rules for 2020/2021. Kilsyth Basketball will implement these rules as well immediately. We advise all Saints coaches to be aware and learn these changes. The rule changes relate to the following:
- Player is Injured and Receives Assistance/Substitution – (Injured Player)
- Player in the Act of Shooting
- Definition of the player’s “cylinder” – Cylinder/Basketball Movements (Offensive Player)
- Definition of the Double Foul
- Definition of an Unsportsmanlike Foul in fast-break situations
- Definition of Table Officials’ duties (Scorer and Timer change of responsibilities)
Player is Injured and Receives Assistance/Substitution – (Injured Player)
If the player receives any treatment or any assistance, he must be substituted unless the team is reduced to fewer than 5 players on the playing court.
In addition to receiving treatment, also if the player receives assistance from team members and accompanying delegation members of their own team, was added.
Player in the act of shooting
The act of shooting is defined now differently for a normal shot and for a shot during the continuous movement. (The new wording is rather a clarification of the rules).
The act of shooting begins when the player starts, in the judgement of a referee, to move the ball upwards towards the opponents’ basket.
The act of shooting in a continuous movement on drives to the basket or other moving shots begins when the ball has come to rest in the player’s hand(s), upon completion of a dribble or a catch in the air and the player starts, in the judgment of the referee, the shooting motion preceding the release of the ball for a field goal.
The act of shooting in a continuous movement or other moving shots has been added.
When a player is in the act of shooting and after being fouled, and he passes the ball off, he is no longer considered to have been in the act of shooting.
Definition of the player’s “cylinder” – Cylinder/Basketball Movements (Offensive Player)
Existing rules describes only defensive player’s cylinder and not the cylinder of the offensive player with and without the ball. Therefore, the description of the cylinder of an offensive player has been added to the rules.
The boundaries of the cylinder of the defensive player or the offensive player without the ball are:
- The front by the palms of the hands,
- The rear by the buttocks, and
- The sides by the outer edge of the arms and legs.
The defensive players hands and arms may be extended in front of the torso no further than the position of the feet and knees, with the arms bent at the elbows so that the forearms and hands are raised in the legal guarding position.
The boundaries of the cylinder of the offensive player with the ball are:
- The front by the feet, bent knees and arms, holding the ball above the hips,
- The rear by the buttocks, and
- The sides by the outer edge of elbows and legs.
The offensive player with the ball must be allowed enough space for a normal basketball play within his cylinder. The normal basketball play includes starting a dribble, pivoting, shooting and passing.
The offensive player cannot spread his legs or arms outside of his cylinder and cause an illegal contact with the defensive player in order to gain an additional space.
The defensive player may not enter the cylinder of the offensive player with the ball and cause an illegal contact when the offensive player is attempting a normal basketball play within his cylinder.
Definition of the Double Foul
The recent rules state that all the fouls of the same penalty are considered as a double foul, however sometimes it is quite difficult for the referees to determine which player has committed the initial illegal contact, along with knowing which player was in the bonus and which player was not, therefore not knowing if the penalties are the same. Therefore, the referees have practically stopped calling the double foul.
35.1 Definition 35.1.1
A double foul is a situation in which 2 opponents commit personal or unsportsmanlike/ disqualifying fouls on each other at approximately the same time.
35.1.2
To consider 2 fouls as a double foul the following conditions must apply:
- Both fouls are player fouls.
- Both fouls involve physical contact.
- Both fouls are between the same 2 opponents fouling each other.
- Both fouls are either 2 personal or any combination of unsportsmanlike and disqualifying fouls.
35.2 Penalty
A personal or unsportsmanlike/disqualifying foul shall be charged on each offender. No free throws shall be awarded and the game shall be resumed as follows: If at approximately the same time as the double foul:
- A valid field goal, or a last free throw is scored, the ball shall be awarded to the non- scoring team for a throw-in from any place behind that team’s endline.
- A team had control of the ball or was entitled to the ball, the ball shall be awarded to this team for a throw-in from the place nearest to the infraction.
- Neither team had control of the ball nor was entitled to the ball, a jump ball situation occurs.
Definition of an Unsportsmanlike foul in fast-break situations
To clarify the game situation and to allow officials to apply the rule as it was intended.
When a defensive player (Team B) deflects the ball from the offensive player (team A) and is close to catching the ball on his fast break with a clear open path to the opponent’s (team A) basket and a normal basketball illegal contact (foul) is now committed by the opponent player (team A). According to the recent rule, the foul did not occur during team B’s fast break as Team A still has control of the ball.(control changes when the other team gains control)
Now, Referees shall apply the Unsportsmanlike Foul rule in this situation.
Definition of Table Officials’ duties (Scorer and Timer change of responsibilities)
It was established that the scorer has many more duties than the other table officials. Therefore, few of his duties are now moved to the timer.
Art. 49 Timer: Duties 49.1
The timer shall be provided with a game clock and a stopwatch and shall:
- Measure playing time, time-outs and intervals of play.
- Ensure that the game clock signal sounds very loudly and automatically at the end of a quarter or overtime.
- Use any means possible to notify the referees immediately if his signal fails to sound or is not heard.
- Indicate the number of fouls committed by each player by raising, in a manner visible to both head coaches, the marker with the number of fouls committed by that player.
- Position the team foul marker on the scorer’s table, at the end nearest to the bench of the team in the team foul penalty situation, when the ball becomes live after the fourth team foul in a quarter.
- Effect substitutions.
- Sound his signal only when the ball becomes dead and before the ball becomes live again. The sound of his signal does not stop the game clock or the game nor cause the ball to become dead.