[BigT]

Originally Posted by ilyazhito

I disagree. Having team fouls reset in each quarter will be a greater deterrent to fouling than the current system, and will reduce the current state of weirdness in high school basketball where teams play quarters, but direction and fouls are by halves. NCAA men's basketball is consistent, because direction of play, periods of play, and fouls are by halves. NBA, WNBA, and FIBA reset direction of play at halves, but periods and fouls are quarters. If fouls and direction are by halves in NFHS, why play in quarters?

5 fouls is simpler than remembering that 7 in a half gets you one shot, and 10 gets you 2. This is especially true if , say the 1st quarter has many fouls (~5 for each team), and the bonus is reached after just 2 fouls and 5 minutes of play in the 2nd quarter, or conversely, teams intensely foul in the 4th quarter to reach the (single or double) bonus after a more subdued 3rd quarter. This is the reason why women's college basketball switched to the 5 foul per quarter system, and both the NBA and FIBA also use the 5 fouls in a quarter = 2 shot bonus system (and why men's NCAA is also experimenting with the rule in the NIT). If you change your AP indicator every quarter (in addition to any other jump balls), you can also use the time to mentally reset your foul counter, and not have to remember "is the next foul I call the bonus?". You can then count your calls and your partners' calls each quarter to determine how soon the bonus will be reached.

Why would 5 fouls a quarter deter fouling more than the current system? By eliminating the single bonus, all team fouls (except player and team control fouls) after the 4th would merit 2 free throws. Coaches would have to adjust their teams' defensive strategies to forestall giving the other team 2 guaranteed free throws on any foul. This would make fouling less palatable as a strategy late in games, because a team that fouls to stop the clock would soon be faced with the prospect of seeing the other team's lead become unreachable if the other team makes their guaranteed free throws.

Love this thinking. Also it speeds up the game due to less FTs total per game. With so many officials leaving every year and more double and triple headers it helps the games end faster.