[M&M Guy]

Originally posted by Jurassic Referee

Nope, that's not what the POE is saying. The POE says that if the coach tells you that they're gonna foul, then an intentional foul is the right call to make. The rationale used by the FED in the POE is "An intentional foul has occured when a team is obviously committing a foul, late in the game, to stop the clock and force the opponent into a throw-in or free-throw situation". The language cited is right out of the POE. If the coach is telling you that a foul is coming, what other reasons could he possibly have in telling his players to commit that foul other than wanting to stop the clock and put the other team on the line? If he wanted them to go for the steal, why would he tell them to foul instead?

Note that I'm not telling you that you or anyone else should follow that POE. I'm just telling you what the correct call is if you do follow the POE.

My only question would be that was a POE back in '00 - '01 - does that still apply today? It wasn't specifically written into the rules that way since then. Perhaps the committee realized that fouling to stop the clock was a legitimate play, because you have to give up something (a foul) to get what you want (the clock stopped). It seems as though the current POE's on intentional fouls now have more to do with not playing the ball and fouling harder than the situation warrants. Has the definition of "intentional" evolved a little to not include simply "on purpose"?