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Old Sun Jan 18, 2015, 11:23pm
VaTerp VaTerp is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by frezer11 View Post
Funny, I was thinking the exact same thing.

The times that I have seen this, the defender is in no way making disparaging comments about the officiating, but rather trying to get into the head of the opponent, similar to the bench or fans counting down the end of the quarter when there is still 15 seconds left. Would you still disallow it if you can confirm, with certainty, that it isn't directed at us?
The differences between yelling "ball, ball, ball" and shouting 1, 2, 3 are:

1) The latter is sometimes directed at the officials to suggest that the official's count is not fast enough and to speed it up in their favor. This is trying to gain an advantage not intended by rule and can also distract the official from doing our job and administering the rules.

2) I will not allow players to try to officiate. Audibly counting a violation is mimicking and manipulating an officials visual count. I will not allow players in my game to continue other attempts at audible officiating either. Such as continually yelling "foul, travel, 3 seconds, etc.

3) As for trying to get into the head of other players. Doing so verbally is not something that players get a lot of rope with at the NFHS and NCAA level. And that goes for benches too. If players want to focus on verbal attempts to get in their opponents heads they should be in the stands with the rest of the fans. To me yelling "ball, ball, ball" is something that players are coached to do any time the ball is "dead" in a players hands to communicate to teamates. Even on an inbound where there may be some effort to "get in a players" head, its not something that's disrupts the game or mimics officiating so its not an issue.

Last edited by VaTerp; Sun Jan 18, 2015 at 11:51pm.
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