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Well put Snaq, Advantage/Disadvantage is one of they keys here, along with displacement. I referee in Minnesota and have worked with different officials that call the game different ways, but the better officials that I have worked with are the ones who let more contact go, not because they encourage the players to beat the hell out of each other, but because they are the ones that have a better understanding of A/D.
If the contact that occurs does not affect the play whatsoever, why call it? (unless its flagrant or intentional of course) If a defender pulls down a rebound and gets bumped from behind (lets just call it over the back for the fans in the crowd) and he does not lose control of the ball, where is the disadvantage here? Why should we be blowing our whistle? Break up the flow of the game for a bump that affected nothing at all? Why? So many officials want to let things go in a close game near the end because they "want the players to decide the game." IMO that should be looked at starting with the jump ball.
Two quotes that I've heard from assigners and supervisors that best describe this are as follows: "be comfortable with contact" had a supervisor at a camp tell us once that if you aren't comfortable with contact, find something else to do, because you won't make it here. As we all know, not all contact is a foul, so its up to us to decide what is, based again on A/D. The other quote is "less is more", speaking of the same idea of letting the game flow, getting what has to be got, and letting the players play.
Star, I assume that being from Minnesota you have probably watched some state tournament games there. One thing I've heard from fans is that they "really let them play when you get to state." Well I can tell you from experience that when we have the meeting for the state tournament, the supervisors do not tell us to "let them play". The reason this happens is that those officials working the state tournament are obviously the better officials in the state and in kind have a better understanding of A/D. The problem is that too many officials over officiate. They think that people are there to see them or something and they blow their damn whistle too much. Whether that is because they arent refereeing the defense or because they want to be the center of the show varies among officials.
I've worked games this year where we "let them play" and of course hear the boos and hollering from the crowd when there is a lot of contact on a drive where the defender jumps straight up, lots of contact, shooter goes down, and we have a no call because the defender did nothing wrong. They have as much right to a space on the floor as everyone else. The thing is after these games where both sides of the crowds hate us for not calling those things, I've almost always gotten praise from both coaches for calling it the way we did. Also regarding your other post about PC fouls, I will defend the fact that it is always judgment and you have to be there to see it, but I will also concede that WAY too many officials call a block where a charge is warranted, and again this comes back to refereeing the defense, which is a tough habit to learn if you were a fan or a player or a dad, because you have always been so used to watching the player with the ball. So I will concede that that is one place where we can all improve.
I am assuming you are in the twin cities are with the large school high schools?
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