[mick]

Originally posted by Hawks Coach
Although my guard started with the intent of going for ball (I knew what he was doing as soon as he moved), he came nowhere near the ball because of a great move by B. He ended up only being able to hack B's off arm and stop his forward progress with a fairly late defensive move. To complicate, my guard is small and B much larger, so he didn't have the reach to get across B's body in any way and get near to the ball - it was all left arm hook with the ball on a RH dribble.

Again, I have seen many of these, and I bet its over 75% in my favor in this situation (and we'll probably be cursed by having someone get away with this against us, law of averages being what it is!). But in reality, it was intentional and all parties knew it, intentionals are a POE (I think) so some refs will be looking for a reason to call them at end of games, so there's not much you can say. I guess that my point is that with the emphasis on the intentionals, we are going to see a lot more quicker whistles that are justified by letter of the law but not giving the beneit of doubt that has been the practice in the past.

Better coach would have had a better play with more 3 point options, which we are putting in this week. We have a good play which my returning players know, but I couldn't call it because we hadn't worked it in practice yet - that's my bad. Also, a better team wouldn't have turned the ball over, and quicker defender would have stopped B's move.

[Edited by Hawks Coach on Jan 9th, 2001 at 04:30 PM]

Coach,
Of course it was intentional! Everyone in the gym knew it. Heck, I saw it from U.P. here!
But, if the player makes a play "at the ball" even though he had "Do not Whiff" in mind, yes, you will get that call, and I bet, more than 90% of the time.
mick