Be the Referee: You Make the Call

December 20, 2018

This week, MHSAA officials coordinator Sam Davis offers up a basketball "You Make the Call" scenario concerning the backboard.

Be The Referee is a series of short messages designed to help educate people on the rules of different sports, to help them better understand the art of officiating, and to recruit officials.

Below is this week's segment – Basketball: You Make the Call - Listen

Let’s test your knowledge of high school basketball rules with this “You Make the Call ..."

An offensive player stops dribbling on the end line immediately behind the backboard. Double-teamed, the player throws the ball into the air. The ball travels over the backboard, where a teammate flies down the lane to grab it and score on a thunderous tomahawk jam.

You make the call. Is this legal?

The sides, the bottom and the top of the backboard are always in play. Anything supporting the backboard, like brackets and wires, are always out of bounds. The ball can even travel behind the backboard at any time – even between wires and brackets – and still be in play if it doesn’t touch anything. But, the ball may never pass over the top of a rectangular backboard in either direction.

This is a violation, and the ball is turned over to the other team.

Past editions

December 13: Basketball Uniform Safety - Listen
December 6: Coaching Box Expansion - Listen
November 29: Video Review, Part 2 - Listen
November 22: Video Review, Part 1 - Listen
November 15:
You Make the Call - Sleeper Play - Listen
November 8: 
7-Person Football Crews - Listen
November 1: Overtime Differences - Listen
October 25: Trickery & Communication - Listen
October 18: Punts & Missed Field Goals - Listen
October 11: What Officials Don't Do - Listen
October 4: Always 1st-and-Goal - Listen
September 27: Unique Kickoff Option - Listen
September 20: Uncatchable Pass - Listen
September 13: Soccer Rules Change - Listen
September 6: You Make the Call: Face Guarding - Listen
August 30: 40-Second Play Clock - Listen
August 23: Football Rules Changes - Listen

Harbor Beach Motivated by Past, Focused on Present in Chasing Future Goals

By Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com

February 12, 2025

Andrew Kabban and his Harbor Beach boys basketball teammates know how quickly a good thing can end.

Bay & ThumbAfter going 19-3 and dominating the Greater Thumb Conference East a year ago, the Pirates had their bubble burst with a buzzer beater in the Division 4 District Final against Cass City, a team they had defeated by 13 a month earlier.

“We’ve kind of had last year stuck in the back of our minds,” said Kabban, a junior point guard. “We have a lot of returning players, we only lost two guys last year, so we all remember what happened last year. We’ve built on that experience, and we’re trying to use our experience to our advantage.”

That experience has allowed the Pirates to hold onto last year for motivation while focusing on what’s directly in front of them, and it’s working. Heading into Wednesday night, they are 17-1 this season, including a perfect 9-0 in the Big Thumb Conference Black. That includes wins over Division 2 Croswell-Lexington (12-5) and Millington (16-2). Their one setback was a 2-point loss against Yale (18-1), the No. 9 team in Division 2.

Of course, they’ll need to keep doing that into March in order to feel as though they’ve truly grown.

“Even with me, I’m a team captain, and sometimes I can catch myself talking about (a bigger game against) Millington, for instance,” junior Benson Harper said. “I just have to remember that we have to take care of business first and stay focused. If we don’t stay focused, something bad can happen to us.”

It becomes easier to maintain that focus when everyone’s on the same page, and for this version of the Pirates, they’ve had plenty of time playing together to get there.

The majority of the roster – nine players – comes from the junior class, with three seniors joining them. That’s a group that has been playing together since elementary school in multiple sports, and winning plenty along the way.

“We started playing together in second grade,” Harper said. “We’ve just been playing ball together forever. We lost one game in seventh grade, then went undefeated in eighth grade. … We’ve just been winning together, and when you see everybody every single day, you build a bond with them, not even just in sports.”

Skiler Kruse (4) elevates above surrounding defenders with a shot in the post.That consistency spans sports and even the coaching staff. Head coach Ron Wruble is also the defensive coordinator for the football team, and the Pirates were 11-1 this past season and 9-2 the year prior.

“These kids, they’re obviously playing football together and playing basketball now, and most of them hang out together, too,” Wruble said. “There’s a lot of camaraderie in the group, and I think they just enjoy being together.”

There was one season where they weren’t all together, however, as Harper was moved to the varsity squad as a freshman. He wasted no time becoming a go-to option for the Pirates, and earlier this season eclipsed the 1,000-point mark.

“He started for us as a freshman, and you can just see his development over the last three years,” Wruble said. “He’s gotten bigger, stronger – his skill set was at the varsity caliber as a freshman, but it’s just been moving up from there.”

In his first season, however, the Pirates were an uncharacteristic 7-12. Harper was happy to be playing at the varsity level, but certainly missed his classmates.

“It was definitely tough, because I was so young and so used to playing with them,” Harper said. “We had kind of a crappy freshman year, and I wasn’t used to losing. But I was also happy to see them winning (on the junior varsity level), and they dominated, too.”

When they all came together again at the varsity level, the success was almost instant. That came as no surprise to Wruble.

“It’s just the general makeup of the team – there’s a big core of kids that are gym rats,” he said. “They live in the gym and the weight room.”

That’s led to a high level of competition in practice, as Wruble praised the depth of his team. It also has the Pirates dominating against a schedule that was built to prepare them for the postseason.

“We try to schedule teams that are going to be the better programs, and that really helps us in the long run,” Wruble said. “We’re coming through the second time around with our conference opponents, and hopefully we can play well and take care of business there.

“Obviously, our District loss last year was a heartbreaker. We lost the District championship at the buzzer with a 3-point shot, and that’s still sticking in the minds of our kids, and they want to get back there and avenge that then, and hopefully move on from there. But it’s going to be one game at a time, and we even break it down further than that: one play at a time. A play in the first quarter had just as much meaning to the end of the game as a play at the end of the game.”

That message – with the help of past experiences – is coming through loud and clear.

“The goal is to win a District and win a Regional,” Kabban said. “The regional is not out of reach for us. But we have to win the District first. We have to win our league first. But we know that we’re capable of doing whatever we put our minds to.”

Paul CostanzoPaul Costanzo served as a sportswriter at The Port Huron Times Herald from 2006-15, including three years as lead sportswriter, and prior to that as sports editor at the Hillsdale Daily News from 2005-06. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Genesee, Lapeer, St. Clair, Sanilac, Huron, Tuscola, Saginaw, Bay, Arenac, Midland and Gladwin counties.

PHOTOS (Top) Harbor Beach’s Benson Harper (10) makes a move in the lane during his team’s Jan. 17 win over Capac. (Middle) Skiler Kruse (4) elevates above surrounding defenders with a shot in the post. (Photos courtesy of the Harbor Beach yearbook staff.)