Timeline

The timeline in basketball is a line on a basketball court that is located in the center, dividing it equally into two pieces. It is also known as the half-court line, center line, or midcourt line.

The time line reflects the rule that the offensive team has a limited amount of time to advance the ball past this line, from the backcourt to the frontcourt, in a scoring drive.

The timeline comes into play during backcourt violations and over-and-back violations. It may have a name that reflects the amount of time, such as “10-second line” or “8-second line”. Correspondingly, a violation of the rule may be called a 10-second violation or an 8-second violation.

The timeline separates the backcourt and frontcourt. Inbounds passes that occur after a made basket are done from the baseline of the inbounding team’s backcourt. Once the ball is inbounded, the offensive team must bring the ball from the backcourt to the frontcourt within a certain amount of time:

• in the NBA, this is eight seconds;
• in college basketball, this is ten seconds.

If the team fails to move the ball across the timeline, a backcourt violation is called, and the opposing team is awarded possession via an inbounds pass. Backcourt violations are also commonly known as eight-second or ten-second violations. They often come about because of a full-court press.

Over-and-back violations occur when a team possesses the ball in the frontcourt and goes back into the backcourt. This usually happens via a pass from a player who has just entered the frontcourt to a trailing player about to enter the frontcourt.

The time limit is marked off by an official waving their arm to visibly count, if there is no shot clock available or the shot clock is turned off. However, women’s college basketball introduced the 10-second limit, and provided that officials will not count the ten seconds but “will use the shot clock to determine if a 10-second violation has occurred”. The referee calls a violation if the offense still has the ball in the backcourt when the shot clock has counted down from 30 to 20 and now shows 19 (which first occurs at 19.9 seconds left). Men’s college basketball has the same rule, when the shot clock changed from 35 seconds to 30 seconds. In the NBA and FIBA, the shot clock marks off the 8-second count.