[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

I know that I am joining this thread late but lets break down the mechanics of this play depending upon whether a two- or three- person crew is officiating the game. It should further be clarified that this type of play is almost always on a drive to the basket.

Two Person: Convention tells us that the official who has the play coming toward him/her should make the call. Having said that lets break that down further. When the ball is on the strong side (the side of the court that the Lead is on) the L should make the call if the drive is coming toward him. This applies whether the L is on the same side of the court as the Trail or on the opposite side of the court from the T. If the drive is made from the from the weak side (the side of court that is opposite from the L) the T should make the call. When there is a double whistle and the ball is on the strong side the T should not make any preliminary signal unless he/she wants the call then he/she should come on strong with an extra blast or two of the whistle before making a preliminary signal.

Three Person: Since we can say the L and T are on the same side of the court we can say that when the drive is from the strong side of the court the L will have the play coming toward him/her and should be the primary official to make the call but if the T wants the call just do like in the two person scenario. When the drive comes from the weak side (the Center's side), the C will take the drive all the way to the basket.

Having buried everybody up to their eye balls in horse manure it should be remembered that in guarding/screening
(block/charge) situations we should always be refereeing the defense. If we are refereeing the defense I believe that we will see many more charge calls and a lot less block calls.