UNICON X- Basketball

As you know by now, UNICON X looms like it will be a really outstanding event.
Every effort are being made in all its aspects. You should be able to find the
Rules of Racing, Artistic, and Unihockey in the Internet.

Below you will find the suggestions for Basketball in unicycles. These are not
final yet, so we are open to suggestions.

We will follow the International Rules for Conventional Basketball at the time
of competition, with the following adaptations for unicycling:

  1. Travelling. The 2 steps are converted into 2 half revolutions, not two full
    revolutions, because pedalling with one leg only moves the wheel half a
    revolution. After the two half revolutions you must throw or pass the ball,
    but not idle.
  2. Idling is equivalent to the pivot foot and therefore is allowed, except as
    established above (after the two steps). Twisting, where the pedals stay at
    the same height, while you move the unicycle left and right is also
    considered as your pivot foot, and therefore allowed. Doing both, (idling and
    twisting) before letting the ball go is not allowed and will be considered
    travelling.
  3. You may not abandon your unicycle while touching the ball. That includes in
    offense, defense, and during jump balls. This is for security reasons.
    Anytime you touch the ball, you must be in contact with your unicycle, and
    not more than one part of your unicycle may be touching the floor. If a
    referee appreciates that a person not touching his unicycle intentionally
    disrupted a play, he may call a technical foul. The other team will choose a
    player to shoot two free throws and will get the ball out of bounds.
  4. The player throwing the ball inbound must be mounted.
  5. The three second zone becomes the 4 second zone.
  6. Intentional blind side pushes are considered flagrant fouls. Two flagrant
    fouls by the same player disqualifies him for the rest of that game. The
    referee must understand that often there is lots of shuffling and pushing
    because more than one player is going for the ball or because it gets crowded
    and the rider must look for balance. The referee must appreciate if there is
    no foul, a regular foul, or a flagrant foul, just like he would in a
    conventional game.
  7. If you fall and lose your unicycle, you must try to get it out of the way as
    soon as possible if you can do it without disrupting the flow of a player of
    the opposite team. If that is not possible, then you must leave it where it
    lands until you can retrieve it without being disruptive. A violation should
    result in a technical foul.
  8. A unicycle is considered part of a player when a ball bounces out of bounds
    off his unicycle if he is in control of his unicycle at that time. So the
    other team gets possesion of the ball. A unicycle is considered part of the
    court when the player is not in control of the unicycle, (for example if he
    had fallen). What team gets possesion will depend on what had happened
    inmediately prior to the ball bouncing off the unicycle.

RE: UNICON X- Basketball

> 3) It was suggested that when jumping off the unicycle, to slam the ball or to
> block a shot, you perform some of the most exciting and crowd pleasing
> plays. It was agreed that the abandoned unicycle is extremely dangerous in
> crowded area. The point is that the fault is to do it when you may put
> somebody else at risk, but why penalize when you are all by yourself. The
> suggestion is to allow the play, but to have the referee call a technical
> foul if, in his appreciation, the rider put somebody in risk by voluntarily
> abandoning the unicycle.

I agree that the jumps and slams are some of the things that should attract
spectators and press to unicycle basketball, so we must keep them in. As I’m not
much of a player I usually stay out of basketball and hockey rules discussion
but just wanted to add that it might be hard to determine when a jumping player
is causing risk. In general I think the move should be allowed, but not in
situations where the empty unicycle will be pointed at other players or in a
spot where other players are about to converge.

> Important but not included in the previous E-Mail is to limit the size of the
> unicycle wheel to not more than 24" wheel. the unicycle must be a standard
> unicycle as defined.

A standard unicycle as defined does not have a specific wheel size, so I presume
you mean a standard with 24" wheel. I would rather not put size restrictions if
possible, because 26" wheels are starting to become more common. A 26" may be
faster up the court, but will never maneuver as well as a smaller wheel. It
might be interesting to play with a mix of wheel sizes, unless your experience
already proves it’s a bad combination.

John Foss, the Uni-Cyclone (reply to jfoss@unicycling.com)
http://www.unicycling.com

“I have more scar tissue on my knees than skin.” - Brett “Bloodman” Bymaster in
a TV interview

RE: UNICON X- Basketball

> Charles Perez, Daniel Dumeng, Jose Roman, Anthony Hernandez, Josue Barreto,
> Javier Ruiz, David Ramos, Carlos Medina, Alfredo Martinez, Angel Clemente, a
> couple of newcomers, and yes, Alberto Ruiz (not a newcomer) have been
> training hard.

Wow, are all those guys coming? What a reunion! Now I’m looking forward to China
even more.

Stay on top, John Foss, the Uni-Cyclone http://www.unicycling.com

“Riding a unicycle has NOTHING to do with physics.” - an unnamed engineer,
trying to help adults learn to ride