Quote:
Originally posted by Hawks Coach
I am not sure why A1's body position was ever relevant. B1 can legally guard A1 by facing her, regardless of whether or not A1 wants to face B1.
As for head and shoulders, I have read these threads, but lets be honest, you will call what you see. IF B1 maintains position between A1 and the basket, a lead shoulder that is slightly past B1 on a direct line to the basket may or may not be seen by the observer as having "beaten" B1 and halted the closely guarded. I think you should be sure they have beaten the defender to drop the count, but that's just my opinion.
In my experience, 6 feet is rarely enforced, it is more like 3-4 feet. An offensive player is routinely given the benefit of the doubt, espcially when driving into a defender, then pulling back to get separation. They frequently don't get much separation, certainly not 6 feet, but most refs see that move back and a slight increase in separation, and they will drop the count immediately. Not all, but most. and most players don't do that much work to create space.
Not complaining mind you, because my "point" guards were pretty poor this season, and we needed all the dropped counts we could get! But we should have had at least twice as many closely guarded calls as we got.
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I don't think it is really the distance that is being mis-applied, it is the level of defensive activity.
The NCAA uses guarding stance, which implies actively guarding. I think many officials enforce their counts requiring an active defender, so if A1 takes two steps back and B1 does not pursue, they will drop their count even if B1 is within 6 feet. This is not even implied in the NF definition. In fact case play 9.10.1.C says the exact opposite.