[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

Old School:

I decided to stop pussy footing around with you. I am going to ask you very politely to read everything that I write in this post because: This weekend is the YMCA Great Lakes Zone Swimming Championships at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. Our younger son is representing the Toledo YMCA Peguins Swim Club in to Boys' 14U relays and instead of sitting in the hotel hot tub with my lovely wife, I am going to devote a lot of time to this post teaching you about guarding and screening. Unfortunately, I do not have my NFHS, NCAA, and FIBA Rules Books with me, many of the pertinent Rules, Casebook, and Approved Rulings have been quoted. This post is going to be part history of the rules, part rules, part case book and approved rulings, and part mechanics. All things that you, personally, need to understand so that you can correctly apply the rules in guarding and screening situations.

1) The guarding and screening definitions in all three rules codes have been unchanged for over fifty years; not withstanding Barb Jacobs idiotic interpretation of the legal guarding postion with regards to the NCAA Women's Rules because like you she was not a basketball official (a former coach) and was comletely ignorant of the how and why a rule is written the way it is.

2) The National Basketball Committee of the United States and Canada (the predecessor the the NFHS and NCAA Rules Committees adopted the current rules for guarding and screening over fifty years ago. The concept that an offensive player who is not airborne when he gains first gains control of the all, must expect to be guarded from the instant he gains control of the ball; in other words, the defensive player does not have to give time and distance when obtaining/establishing a legal guarding position against an offensive player in control of the ball as long as the offensive player was not airborne when he gained control of the ball. Time and distance only applies to guarding a offensive player without the ball or an offensive player who gains control of the ball while airborne. Time and distance also applies to all (My apologies to J. Dallas Shirley.) screening situations; it should be noted that screens can be set by all ten players on the court, i.e., the offensive player in control of the ball can set a screen against a defensive player and a defensive player can set a screen against an offensive player (including the offensive player in control of the ball).

3) Closesly guarded situations have nothing to do with obtaining/establishing a legal guarding position.

4) I repeat: Time and distance does NOT apply when obtaining/establishing a legal guarding position against an offensive player who is not airborne when he gains control of the ball.

5) The Act of Shooting and Continuous Motion have nothing to do with obtaining/establishing a legal guarding postition.

6) I repeat: Time and distance does NOT apply when obtaining/establishing a legal guarding position against an offensive player who is not airborne when he gains control of the ball.

7) Good officials officiate the defense. Yes, the Lead in a three-whistle officiating crew will normally be watching the offensive player with the ball from the waist up when that player is in the low post, it is wrong to say the the Lead must always watch the offensive player from the waist up to the exclusion of watching the whole play. In the play being discussed, the drive started in the Trails' primary, but the secondary defender was the Lead's resonsibiity and should be able to see both the offensive and defensive players in order to make this block/charge call. A good official develops the ablility to have to V's of vision: a vertical vision and a horizontal vision.

8) I repeat: Time and distance does NOT apply when obtaining/establishing a legal guarding position against an offensive player who is not airborne when he gains control of the ball.

9) In conversations with you you admitted that your posts revealed your rules knowledge was lacking but that should not equate to lack of ability. I have this to say to you: One may know the rules and casebook forwards and backwards and that person still may not have the ability to apply that knowlege on the court, but one cannot begin to be a good official unless he does have a command of the rules and casebook. Your lack of rules knowledge translates directly proportinal to your ability to correctly officiate the game.

10) I repeat: Time and distance does NOT apply when obtaining/establishing a legal guarding position against an offensive player who is not airborne when he gains control of the ball.

MTD, Sr.