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I really believe that this is the result of the upper levels of basketball putting an emphasis on calling player control fouls in recent past. Why?
My best guess is that from the NBA to the NCAA and filtering on down to the NFHS, there has been a concern about rough play. As a result we have seen some major changes in the past four or five years. For example, the FT lane line alignments.
The movement which stresses penalizing offensive players for jumping into defenders in an attempt to draw a foul on the defender as well as not making defenders have to be statues to take a charge is aimed at deterring these contact situations. A few years ago, it seemed that the mindset of the offensive player was that if he took the ball to the basket hard and created contact he would be rewarded with FTs. Now offensive players are coming to believe that they will be penalized for crashing into defenders and thus are more careful or at least more selective in how they attack the basket. The message seems to be out and the coaches and players are arguing player controls fouls less and less.
While the actual rule book wording by which we officiate the block/charge situations has not changed, the level of enforcement clearly has, and I believe it has been to the betterment of the game.
At least that is my perception.
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