[drinkeii]

Originally posted by Andy

Ahhhh...here is where the fault in your logic lies, grasshopper.

Advantage/disadvantage is specifically mentioned in the basketball rulebook in the definition of a foul.

You are right about one thing...I don't say "PLAY ON", I just choose not to blow my whistle!! (In a 30 point game with 15 seconds left, I would often choose not to blow my whistle)

So it is mentioned... as I stated before. It is not a "rule", it is a consideration. How about this (devil's advocate) - It is always an advantage to the fouled team to call the foul, because it gets them closer to the bonus, gets the player that fouled closer to being out of the game. There is never a disadvantage to calling a foul, except maybe on a drive where you call a foul on the floor before what would be an easy basket.

So how does advantage/disadvantage apply to a blowout then? It is not to either team's advantage to call fouls on the lagging team, but then again, the game would get out of control if you just let them foul because they were so far behind it woulnd't make a difference. These are difficult games to officiate. But the rules make no difference for a blowout vs. a close game - they are the same. Choosing to ignore certain rules because of the time of the game or the location, etc... seems to fly in the face of the people who wrote and approved the rules. If they were supposed to be applied differently under different circumstances, that would be in the rules... and it's not! Common sense is nice, but the game isn't played on "common-sense book" - it's played on a "rule book". No rules, no game. And the refs SHOULDN'T be influencing the game - you should (theoretically) get the same game with the same rules, officiated in pretty much the same way, wherever and whenever you play. Otherwise, why even have rules?