[drinkeii]

This is probably a common question, but I am having a debate with one of the teachers at my school. I am a PIAA official, and he has coached basketball for a number of years.

According to the rules, a player, once they have established a legal guarding position (Both feet on the floor, torso facing the offense), they are permitted to move laterally or obliquely to maintain that position. The point of the debate seems to be in 2 directions.

1) The player is not permitted to move toward the offensive player. My take on this is that they are not allowed to close the gap between them in a forward direction. They are permitted lateral movement, so they can move sideways into the path of the dribbler, such that the dribbler cannot get head and shoulders past them before the contact occurs. I guess the way I am taking that is that if the dribbler changes direction, the defender, having established the position, can move sideways (directly left to directly right) or obliquely (away from them, at any angle), and continues to have established the position. For that to be a block, the defender must move forward towards the dribbler. He thinks that moving sideways into their proposed path is not permitted, because it is moving "toward" the dribbler. I am saying if you move sideways, directly sideways, and having already established a position, beat them to the spot so that the contact occurs in the chest or shoulder area, whether or not they have 2 feet on the ground, it is a PC foul.

2)The other point is that moving sideways, he feels the player must reestablish the initial guarding position every time they pick up a foot to move sideways, before they can have established the "new" position. The rule reads that they can move sideways legally, and therefore do not have to reestablish a new guarding position, because they established the initial one.

Without a diagram, it is difficult to explain what he means by number 1... think of a compass or protractor.

0 is toward the dribbler, 180 is directly away from them - 90 and 270 are directly sideways for the defender. The defender is permitted, once they have established the initial guarding position, to move anywhere between 90 and 270 degrees, and as long as they get to the spot before the offense, it is considered a PC foul. If they move in any direction between 270 and 0 or 0 and 90, they have moved toward the dribbler, and it is a block. He is saying that by moving, lets say, 270 exactly, they are moving toward the dribbler because they are moving into their path.

Ideas?

Also, I know that a lot of people are anywhere from very shaky to completely refusing to call a PC on a player against a moving defender, even though the rules call for it. That isn't a debate I want to get into - I just want to find out if my interpretation of the rules is correct.