Mick - this is a terrific question. I have seen this play before and always wondered about the best way to deal with it.
I have reiterated the Mick's question here:
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Red team has the ball in her front court and has picked up her dribble. Tenacious white defender gets right on Red with no contact, cuts off any passing lane possibility.
Red panics and pivots with a big step, so that her "pivot leg" is at a 30 degree angle to the floor. Now, white takes a step closer and is now straddling the "pivot leg", with Red's pivot foot actually behind White.
Red now trys to stand, while White maintains good verticality without reaching, but still straddling Red's leg.
On the attempt to stand, Red bumps into White on Red's way up, loses her balance and moves her pivot foot.
What'cha got?
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My gut instinct was that a foul should be assessed to the White player. However, upon reading relevant sections in the rulebook, I can not find any reason why White can not take the position she has. For example, Whiteplayer satisfies all of the conditions for legal guarding (see the Guarding definition under rule 4).
Red, when trying to stand upright, bumps into White. If White is not displaced, I would consider this incidental contact. If White is displaced, foul on Red (see Art. 7 of Verticality definition in Rule 4) "The player with the ball is to be given no more protection or consideration than the defender in judging which player has violated the rules." If Red moves her pivot, travelling violation should be called.
If Red was a smart player, she would have moved toward White as White was moving towards her. Any contact at this point would have been on White. This is the reason why we tend not see this situation at higher levels - offensive player knows better than to get themselves in that position.
Also, male players instinctively know better than to try this type of thing (if they want to father children ...)
Cheers,
David