Oh, I think we did a rather fine job of vaporizing Packer during the Sweet Sixteen thread. He was so deep on Tyler Hansbrough's D that it could've qualified as an endoscopy.

Actually, lifting your pivot foot is not automatically a travel.

According to the NCAA Rulebook:

Art. 4. After coming to a stop and establishing the pivot foot:
a. The pivot foot may be lifted, but not returned to the playing court, before the ball is released on a pass or try for goal;

After Green loses control of the ball, he establishes his right foot as his pivot foot. When he makes the move to the basket, he steps toward the basket on his left foot, picks up his right, jumps off his left and releases the ball before his right foot comes back down.

He didn't "switch his pivot foot entirely," he made a perfectly legal move to the basket.

If you want to argue that before the move his pivot foot shifts as Foster bumps into him, fine, but the move to the basket wasn't a travel.

The rule goes on to clarify that if the other foot makes contact with the ground before the ball is released it is a travel.

Anon- Are you serious? That's his pivot foot switched entirely. What are you watching?

RUTS - he was still on Hansbrough's jock for all of yesterday, too, just savaging Georgetown.

It's always nice of Packer where you can count on him to slurp the bigger seed unless they roll up against Duke or UNC.

I'm watching the same video you are.

So are these officials (note the Vandy fan in post #40)

Same with the 2 NBA refs that Mike Wilbon said he asked in his WaPo chat today. (3rd question)

Here's the rule. His right foot is his pivot foot. He steps and jumps off his left foot and shoots before his right foot comes back down. By rule, that is not a travel.

Here are some photos that back me up:

Photo 5: Green has clearly lost the ball. As soon as he loses possession of the ball, he does not have a pivot foot.

Photo 6: Green regains possession.

Photo 7: Green's left foot is in the air, making his right foot his pivot foot.

Photo 9: Green spins to his left, and his right foot is still on the ground.

Photo 10: Still spinning, right foot still on the ground.

Photo 11: Green steps on his left foot and picks his right foot up.

Photo 12: Green is clearly in the air, having never put his right foot back on the ground.

Let me remind you of the rule:

Art. 4. After coming to a stop and establishing the pivot foot:
a. The pivot foot may be lifted, but not returned to the playing court, before the ball is released on a pass or try for goal

Where's the travel?

Here's the rest of the rule that you failed to mention....

b. The pivot foot shall not be lifted before the ball is released to start a dribble.

How do you explain that?

He didn't go to the dribble, Awful. He immediately went up when he lifted his pivot foot, and since he let go of the ball before he came down again, it's legal.

With all of that said though, Packer still said it wasn't a travel for all of the wrong reasons, and he still needs to go.

Well if that's the majority vote then I'll back off my initial position. It still appeared to be a travel, but a rule is a rule. Why have I never heard it put this way?

My guess is that it goes on far more often than any of us thought it does, but CBS decided to make a big deal out of it because they could. Maybe I'm just an idiot (a definite possibility), but I didn't scream "TRAVEL!" when I saw Green's move.

Forget the hair-splitting. I've been under the assumption that travelling wasn't called because of the awkward sequence of getting trapped, losing temporary control of the ball, and the overall excitement of the moment. I'd agree that the refs were looking more for fouls than travelling. I seriously doubt any of the refs looked at that play and consciously thought, even for a split second, "nope, that's not a travel!" I don't think it actually entered their minds.