[Raymond]

My own personal experience, if a defender is maintaining his space and not poking his face towards the offensive player I call a PC if contact is made with the elbow to the face. I've called a PC 2 times over the last 2 seasons and also one time I had a technical when the contact occured after my whistle for a foul. In each case I didn't deem the contact intentional or flagrant, but I did consider it severe enough that I felt a whistle was warranted (in the case of the technical the movement of the elbow was unnecessary b/c the play had been whistled dead).

I acquired this philosophy from a local D1, Sweet 16-level official who thinks that blows to the face need to be addressed from a game management perspective. He would rather err on the side of calling it too tight rather than risking retaliation later on. (in the case of the NIT final the defender immediately shoved the offensive player down and was rightfully called for an intentional foul)

Just his own personal philosphy which I choose to follow.

And before any one jumps to other extreme "what if" scenarios, I'm talking about the "elbows out, torso twisting" movement when an offensive player has 2 hands on the ball and she/he is being closing contested by a defender.