One thing the coronavirus has done is expose so many of the complete muppets sitting in officialdom.

Jump ball thing is a little silly, but if you look past that with a bit more maturity it's all pretty sensible stuff in the context.

IMO posters are being a tad unfair on the sports administrators - they have to comply with public health dictates. That said, the no jump ball rule is really really stupid.

In looking ahead to the U16/U18 nationals, what is NOT in these guidelines is a requirement for players to get tested for covid (and be cleared) to participate in a BA event.

If you know your playing group are clear of Covid, it provides more leeway for contact in other areas...like allowing jumpballs! Are testing kits still hard to come by?

If there is a risk in having a jump ball, isn't there also a risk in :

- Playing D, getting a charge?

- Inbounding a ball where the shooter may be a Covid carrier? Or should an UV sanitiser be installed into the hoop? What if the shot misses, how can we sanitise the ball before the rebound?

- Setting a pick, I don't the defender hitting my screen, surely he must lag 1.5 wide and 1.5m behind? Its not safe otherwise.
-

I wondered if the removal of the jump ball might've been to minimise handling of the ball between ref and players, but didn't see mention of any other situations where that might occur. Maybe they figured they'd removed other jump balls in past years, so might as well go one step further for the hell of it. Should've skipped the coin toss/etc and gone with scoresheet order and alternated from there.

Isaac I think the reason would be because there is 10 players standing so close together. No other time in the game do you have 10 players standing that close to one another. I don't like the rule but I imagine that is why.

So the reason behind a "no jump ball" situation is what , to avoid contact, what are they going to do when the ball changes possession on a pass, on a rebound, on a steal, are they going to stop play and wipe the ball, come on, a jump ball is an extension of the game, the same ball will be used.

^ you are a doofus. Get over the jump ball point ... it's just not that important.

The point, surely, is the underlying inconsistency. It would help if there was an explanation as to why this [no jump ball] should be the case, but I'm struggling to come up with one.

Can't be more than one person touching the ball - that's how the game is played.

Can't be officials [refs] and players touching the ball - that happens every throw in.

Can't be players [too] close together because that happens in every rebound or other contested ball situation.

Feel free to add/expand as you see fit.

To repeat - the point is not the 'no jump ball' edict, but the underlying inconsistency, which sadly makes it a nonsense and opens up all the associated edicts/issues into question.

I will be more upset if I lose "rock, paper, scissors", than if I lose the game.

"the use of hand
sanitisers courtside when a player enters and exits the
court at breaks, timeouts and substitutions"

The jump ball thing is kind of logical-

the diameter of the centre circle is 3.6 metres, radius 1.8m.

That's 10.2sqm.

They're avoiding a situation where 11 people will all be within 11sqm of each other, given there's another way to deal with the situation which is already used (possession arrow- eg: Equivalent to first team listed on the fixture).

It's not really that inconsistent.

Draconion perhaps (much like the sanitiser thing) but you can understand where they're coming from.

If it's not safe to have a jump ball, it's not safe to play.

not sure what the plural is for doofus, but that's what we have on this post. who cares about a jump ball?

Some boffin at BA trying to justify his big salary whilst making sure a coronavirus box is ticked sure does.

I guess, if anyone has COVID 19 they should be caught at the door with a temp check on the way in

IF they played because they didnt have a temp yet, then chances are they'll either infect someone else or they won't, and the jump ball only increases the chances by a tiny amount.

If I was writing the rules, I'd leave the jump ball. I was just saying, it's not totally inconsistent with the physical distancing thing they've been pushing. And a jump ball is easily replaceable whereas other parts of the game are not.

(Unless you wanna make it like mixed bball and have certain players in the key, which is an absolutely ridiculous suggestion for male or female games obviously)

The absence of Covid tests in these guidelines is - I think - a major issue from these guidelines.

The jump ball situation is of minor importance - I'm surprised people are making such a big deal out of it.

Paper, scissors, rock?

Surely this is just someone at BA injecting some humour into this...

"Can the skin of the basketball have sanitizer impregnated into it. I am serious that look at way to have infused into compound of the ball"

Unfortunately it is not but nice suggestion :)


"The absence of Covid tests in these guidelines is - I think - a major issue from these guidelines."

I may be wrong but I'm pretty sure that testing is not that simple. It's not like a pregnancy test where you can test yourself at home. Last I heard they were testing using qPCR which requires a million dollar machine, an experienced operator and 2 days of work. If it weren't for that then yes, I would agree

"but there is reasoning behind what BA have done."

Obviously - we're speculating what on earth that reason could be.

Re: "Last I heard they were testing using qPCR which requires a million dollar machine, an experienced operator and 2 days of work. If it weren't for that then yes, I would agree"

Thanks "The Ibek-Way". I understand there is a problem with reliability of tests, particularly false readings given by certain testing kits from China (...well done twiggy, securing these).

I am open to credible, contrary info here - but I understand that the quality of tests in Taiwan and South Korea, conducted en masse in car parks and airport terminals and taking less than 2 hours, is considered satisfactory for public health purposes. I have read reports airlines like Emirates are looking to include these covid tests as part of a passenger's check in procedure.

My concern is the postponed U16/U18 nationals. I would have thought that pre-testing competitors would be a no brainer, but I cannot find any reference to testing in these guidelines. I can only guess here - but almost 4 months into this crisis it could be that access to quality testing kits is still a big problem and that BA cannot mandate testing when it cannot be confident testing kits will be available.

Ok, with your reply I actualy bothered to have a look which I should have done in the first place as I was a little wrong and you have some good points.

qPCR is still the best and most accurate method of testing with a very low level of false readings. Even better, they have created handheld qPCR devices for covid which is great. These handhelds devices are still expensive and still require an experienced user but take ~an hour as opposed to a day or two. This may be what you are talking about regarding Taiwan and Korea. These devices do suffer from not being able to test many people at a time. eg handheld ~10 vs qPCR ~1000.

Where i am really wrong is that they have developed antibody kits for testing which take about 20 minutes and funnily enough, use the same principle as pregnancy tests. I doubt you will see them used in Australia though as they are mostly useless and will not show a positive until late into infection, well after an individual has become contagious.

thanks ibek

A hilarious yet accurate take on BA's return to basketball guidelines:

Rock, paper, scissor, ball! Basketball Australia's Return to Basketball guidelines

Any updates in regards to whats going on with the state leagues:
I've heard the following below but don't know if there is much truth to it as some people say all leagues will be cancelled while a fair few people are saying condensed season.

NSW are looking into doing 16 round - 8 week condensed season or to call the season off

Big V - 9 round - 9 games each team plays each other once

Would the WABL, QBL and Premier League pop up for condensed seasons as the NBL1 variants in those states are cancelled to fill in for the gap created from NBL1

Another issue is if it is cancelled, will people get refunds for their rego and team fees, especially the rego being more than half done'