Inbounding or Hoarding Balls

[samholladay]

Hi, I'm a little unclear about the rules here. In Section 3 of the manual, "The Game," under 3.1.6, "Human Actions," in section <G31> it says that "Inbounders must remove Basketballs from the Corral immediately upon arrival. All Basketballs in the Alliance must be held by Inbounders." So, it's pretty clear that you can't just leave the opponent's balls in the corrals. Plus, you can hold up to 2 balls at a time.

However, in section <G32>, it says "Inbounders may enter Basketballs onto the court by...passing through the Inbound Slots at any time." Now, I know the intent of that clause was to say that you can pass balls through the slots at any point in the game, unlike throwing it over the Inbound Station, which can only happen during the last 30 seconds.

But it doesn't really say how long the human players can hold the two balls in their hands. They have to pick it up immediately, yes, but it doesn't say they have to return them immediately. In that case, up to 8 of the 18 total balls in play could be held by human players for the duration of the match. That would really change the scoring, since almost half the balls would be out of play, held by the human players. I'm sure I'm missing or misinterpreting something, but if not, maybe FIRST can release an update correcting this. Thanks.