BEVERLY HILLS (MI) — It’s springtime and there are brand-new nets strung up on the hoops down the street at Birmingham Groves HS. For me, that means only one thing– it’s time for another season of outdoor pick-up hoops. And with it comes some always-interesting interpretations to (or total non-observance of) the basic rules of basketball.
The side, bottom or top of the hoop are out of bounds
No, no, no they aren’t.
We don’t play ‘over and back’
My response is always the same “Either we play by all of the rules or none of the rules.”
A kicked ball doesn’t have to be intentional
I started carrying a copy of this specific rule in the console of my car because so many playground know-it-alls don’t know the rule.
There is no continuation
In college or the NBA if you get fouled in the act of shooting, the hoop counts and you get to shoot a FT. In playground ball, if you call a foul, not only does the hoop not count, you don’t get a FT either!
“I don’t call fouls”
You better, otherwise you’re gonna kill our team because the other guys know they can hack the crap out of you and you won’t call it.
The grass is out
Where does the grass begin? Is the mud next to it part of the grass? There is a reason they took the trouble to paint those nice, straight, white lines all around the court –- so it’s easy to tell when the ball or a player goes out of bounds.
The pole is in
When someone makes this call, I always ask them “where would the ball be if it didn’t hit the pole?” They inevitably answer “out of bounds.” Well, there you go.
In other news:
— Ralph Hill had 18 and Dunbar’s Geron Johnson 20 as the South beat the North in the D I-II Ohio HS All-Star Game:
— Who is Jesse Berry? TrueBlueKentucky.com answered this question last year, before all of the stuff hit the fan:
— Steve Bell from Mlive.com with profiles on some Michigan AAU players, including (if you scroll down) potential 2011 UD recruit Trey McDonald:
http://blog.mlive.com/highschoolbasketball/2010/04/post_9.html
— Brandon Spearman played for the South squad in the Chicago League All Star Game, but he wasn’t the story — his teammate Fabyon Harris was, as he showed up to play in the game 2 hours after his brother’s funeral:
— It’s not too late to book your “Dayton to Daytona “trip:
http://www.udtweets.com/?site=twits&n=dayton2daytona
— When you live in a village with only 14,000 residents like Beverly Hills, MI it’s not every day that your little hamlet gets a headline on a national sports website (even if it was only on SportsbyBrooks.com):
http://www.sportsbybrooks.com/broke-baller-still-beverly-hills-michigan-that-is-28179
— Here is why early commitments don’t mean much anymore in the world of high-stakes recruiting:
http://blogs.indystar.com/recruitingcentral/2010/04/remember-louisv.html
— Here is why any commitment doesn’t mean much anymore in the world of high-stakes recruiting– one-and-dones:
http://rushthecourt.net/2010/04/16/in-1-and-done-era-experience-wins-championships/
— The NCAA made some more changes in recruiting regulations, including the common-sense move allowing coaches to talk to players who attend a summer camp or clinic on their campus:
http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/news?slug=ap-ncaa-recruitingrestrictions
— The 10 greatest fictional sports of all time:
http://www.cracked.com/article_18525_the-10-greatest-fictional-sports-ever-invented.html
That’s it “From the Swamp.”
You can email me at: [email protected]
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