Usually, in my experience, it's a secondary defender that will move over and camp out directly under the basket. The primary defender is usually moving with the offensive player. I don't remember if there's a strict interpretation on secondary vs. primary defenders, but it's usually the secondary defender that comes over to help that's doing the camping.
I'm not sure it's been mentioned yet, but the reasoning behind this is due to the fact the defender chooses that spot not for playing defense, because there is no chance to block a shot from under the basket, but rather for the sole purpose of drawing contact from the driving offensive player after the shot. The NCAA-W committee felt this was an uneccessary play from a possible injury standpoint. Also, a point that was made earlier was this only applies to "north-south" drives to the basket, iow, a drive down the lane from, say, outside the free throw line. If the drive originates from the corner and moves along the baseline, this rule does not apply because the defensive player still could be defending a pass into the opposite corner, or the offensive player could continue to drive along the baseline under the basket, so the defender is actually playing some other kind of defense other than just standing there to take contact.
Yea, I know, drawing charges is also playing defense. I don't know if I explained it very well, but the committee is just trying to get rid of any uneccessary contact. It's not one of my favorite rules, but I (kinda) understand why it's there. As far as it being stupid, I can think of other rules that are further up the stupid ladder than this one (matching color headbands?...). But, if I'm going to call that game, I guess I'm going to enforce all the rules of that game, whether or not I think they're stupid.
__________________
M&M's - The Official Candy of the Department of Redundancy Department.
(Used with permission.)
|