Quote:
Originally Posted by DrPete
To me that's clearly a foul. I've been lectured on the "let the bigs block shots, that's why people are here" vernacular also, but I don't agree with that mentality for high school ball. A foul is a foul no matter how cool it looked.
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I call the game the exact way at the high school level as any other level I would call. I am OK with the contact if there is ball first. And players falling should not be the reason we call a foul. The player could land totally on their feet and I would feel the same way about the play either way. If a player touches his arm or misses the ball, this is a foul all the time. I have made several of those types of calls regardless of the way the shooter falls. And in some cases, the shooter never feel and it looked like a clean block to others, but the contact was with the wrist or head.
This idea that we do something so "pure" at the high school level is so annoying. Because when you call things that are clear rules that are held at other levels as well, we get a lot of blowback about those calls. So I guess it is funny when people say, "That would be a call at the high school level" when we have officials that cannot call simple hand-checking rules that are clearly listed as fouls. This is at best an interpretation situation more than anything.
For the record, I think this looks like a clean block, but I do not have the look that the officials did as they were a lot closer to the play. But if a foul is called, I am OK with it, I just find the parts as if a high school game matters in the decision. The rules or philosophy are the same where I live.
Peace