Quote:
Originally posted by Bart Tyson
If it is a blind screen then it is also unlikely B1 stopped. My guess is this will be a foul on B1. You have player on the floor which also involves the ball. This is the kind of rough play we need to clean up. For me not to call a foul on this one, it will have to be obvious to everyone, it was a flop.
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Rough play in my book is play that intends to be rough. Fast play with blind screens is by nature going to be rough, and the screening team should expect contact when they set the blind screen. When you have A1 and B1 as the two fastest players on the court and you blind screen on B1, there may be contact but I do not consider B1 guilty of rough play. B1 is working his/her butt off to stay on the ball and not get beat. If anything, in these situations the only reason the play is rough is the offense's decision to set a blind screnn, not the defender's decision to guard their player. By setting a blind screen, the offense decided they were willing to exchange hard contact for getting B1 off A1.
Now, having said that, is it a foul? As A's coach, I expect to have hard contact on the screen - it's blind and I am running my quick player off the screen to get B1 off of her. I want to gain an advantage from the screen, and I fully expect to catch B1 off guard and that B1 will hit A2 pretty hard. My players must brace for hard contact in these situations. The advantage I seek is not an on-the-floor foul on B1 - it is an open lane to the basket and a good scoring opportunity. This is an advantage you deny me if you blow the whistle when B1 contacts A2.
If B1 runs through A2's screen and pretty much stays with A1, then A did not get the advantage they deserved for setting a good screen, and therefore B committed a foul. If B1 stops on contact, regardless of how or why, and A1 is now unimpeded going to the hole, you got no call. Frequently in these situations, both players are crashing hard and there is no way to see if B intended to stop, but you sure can see that B did stop and A got what they wanted from the screen. Why would you whistle a foul for this?
Had this twice in one game this weekend, my parents screamed for a foul and I told the ref good no-call. There is a reason the case book interpretation is written the way that Mark DeNucci cites!