Quote:
Originally posted by Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.
1) Chuck's original posting stated that B1 hit A1's wrist; the wrist is NOT part of the hand, and I am positive that there is a casebook play that backs up my ruling.
2) Hitting the dribbler on his wrist while he is dribbling puts the dribbler at a significant disadvantage. Stop trying to hide behind this horse manure of trying to save a foul and that the result was the same because the foul by B1 would not have put Team A in the bonus and you saved a switch with your partner. The result was NOT the same. B1 committed a foul and was not charged with it, and Team A is still one foul more from being in the bonus than it should be and B1 is one foul more from being disquailfied than he should be.
3) Flow of the game. Yes, every official wants his game to go smoothly. I had a men's college jr. varsity game earlier this year that had only four fouls between the two teams in the first halve. You did not have to tell me twice that it was an enjoyable first halve of basketball. Players dictate the flow of the game, not officials. If the players want to play stupid and commit stupid fouls, then guess what, the officials have to stop the game and assess the foul. This is not to say that officials cannot screw up the game sometime. But the foul by B1 was not a flow breaker. It was a simple foul to call and an official did not do his job and then had to T a coach.
4) Yes the coach should not have been yelling at the official and I am always irked when I see coaches out of the coaching box even when the are coaching. But the "flow of the game" in this instance dictates that Coach B in this play does not get a T. And this is coming from a person, who has coaches think that my middle initial stands for Technical Foul.
5) There are no valid reasons for not calling the foul on B1, only excuses.
6) And I do not apologize for taking no prisnors on this issue today. Officials have enough problems that are not of our making that we do not have to go out and generate more problems for ourself when we do not do the job we are supposed to do.
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I still beg to differ with you about the wrist not being part of the hand. Merriam Webster's does not say it isn't part of the hand and dictionary.com defines hand as: The terminal part of the human arm located below the forearm, used for grasping and holding and consisting of the wrist, palm, four fingers and an opposable thumb.
I have offered two legitimate references to the wrist being part of the hand and you have no refutation other than what you say. Unless human anatomy has changed since I went to college, the wrist is the proximal articulating surface of the hand.
Also you say you have a casebook reference to back up your ruling. Let's have it. I've looked through the casebook 3 times today and haven't found it. Maybe I'm missing something.