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Jurassic -- I am a former D1 assistant bball coach and can tell you from first-hand experience that officials make calls in the "gray" areas of the game all the time. "That was a bad offensive move; I won't bail him out" OR "not enough contact now" is what I heard often in games that were all but decided by the score/time.
This year I was hired into a college league and can give you an example from this past Saturday. Although it was a close game there were several players (from both teams)on the floor that had 4 fouls. My two partners made sure that the entire crew knew who had four fouls. We weren't going to stick a player w/ a 5th foul that was "weak". I had a situation where two players from Team B (who both had 4 fouls) fouled A5 in the act of shooting. I blew the whistle and got to choose which player to report.......I choose the player who I deemed to be the "weaker" player (leaving the better player on the floor). Although slightly a different situation than we've been discussing earlier, is that "shading"? Did I hurt the integrity of the game? Both of my partners said they would do the same thing. I know that if I were a player or coach on Team B, that's how I would want an official to handle it (Team A would feel the same way if it happened to them).
In the interest of full disclosure, Team A lost the lead and the game during the last 2 minutes. I certainly didn't affect the missed 3pt. shot and 2 missed rebound attempts by Team A to tie the game.............
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Jeff Pearson
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