[26 Year Gap]

Originally Posted by KCRef

I may be wrong here, as I only just completed my first year of officiating, but could the coaches, players, and fans actually understand that contact is required in order to get the foul called when a player rebounds a ball from behind another player. Maybe the coach thought there was contact, and instead of telling his captain to tell the referee, "Please watch for the push from behind on the rebound," it is just easier to say, "Please watch the over-the back," and realize that the referee will know what they are talking about. Same thing goes for, "Please watch the fouling while reaching in," or "Please watch for the contact during that moving screen." Again, I could be wrong, but maybe the coach does understand that there has to be contact to get the foul, and maybe he saw it that way.

Usually, there is not a messenger boy on this pleading for us to pay attention...coaches prefer to yell out "Over the back! And 1! He's reaching!" for the most part. The over the back whine typically happens when a bigger opponent cherry picks a rebound over the outstretched arms of his player and gets a putback bucket.