[PAT THE REF]

Hello everyone,

I attended my local assc. meeting last night and one of the topics for discussion was the aspect of intentional fouls as it relates to the game.

It was stated that...
A) If a player is trying to strategically foul (stop clock or get into bonus situation) and is not going for the ball (i.e. instead of trying to steal the ball – just grasping the player or jersey to commit a foul) then it should be ruled intentional…Regardless of how much contact their actually was.

B) As with the above situation, if a coach is screaming “foul them, foul them” and they commit the same act or some other foul and not playing for the ball – this must be deemed intentional.

I was always thought that the purpose of an intentional foul is to use as a “tool” in our lovely little “toolbox” much like technical fouls or flagrant fouls. However, they are stating that if ANY foul was to be committed as in “b” or if the player grabs the body or jersey at all it needs to be intentional. In which commonly we would have just called it a common foul…

These players see this at NCAA games frequently. I have seen some lately myself. I wanted to know everyone’s opinion on this and whether or not does the amount of contact actually designate an “intentional foul”.