Quote:
Originally Posted by bainsey
Fair enough, Billy. How about, in their eyes, "fouling without making any effort to go for the ball is part of the game?"
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Most "fans" don't have a clue about the difference between a common foul and intentional foul.....along with a whole bunch of other rules we discussed here many times.
As BillyMac said, fouling is an accepted part of late game strategy. IMHO, it is the responsibility of the officials to make sure it doesn't get out of hand, and for that to happen we need to do two things:
1. Be aware of the situation and when you know they're trying to foul, call the foul immediately, even something that we might normally pass on - don't wait and let the contact escalate.
2. Don't hesitate to call the intentional foul when it occurs - make it clear that there is a right way and wrong way to implement this strategy, and the officials are going to enforce it.
If we, as officials, are uniformly consistent on this, the coaches will be forced to teach their players the right way if they want to use this strategy, and it won't be an issue.
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On the subject of shot clocks, I believe that cost is a factor. Schools all over this region are facing huge budget shortfalls and having to make cuts. Another is the ability to get enough table crew together to run them for early games, particularly the sub-varsity ones. Some schools have trouble getting just a scorekeeper and game clock operator. I don't think it's much of an issue for the officials. The End of the Trail tournaments here use them along with a modified version of NCAAW rules, and I don't know any officials that have had a problem making the adjustments.