[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

1) I would have expected my first year students to get this call correct: CHARGE!!

2) I do not use the term "secondary defender" because there is no such thing as a "secondary defender" contrary to it being in the NCAA Men's and Women's Rules Books. The members of these two rules committees, may be very good basketball coaches but the addition of the term "secondary defender" and the "restricted area" to the rules show that they are completely lacking in the basic concepts of the Guarding Rule as it was conceived over fifty years ago.

The Guarding Rule was written based upon the following three concepts:

(1) An Offensive Player without the Ball has a reasonable expectation of not being defended because he/she does not have the Ball.

(2) An Offensive Player who does not have control of the should be expected to be guarded the instant he/she gains control of the Ball; meaning that the Offensive Player should expect to be guarded as long as he/she has Player Control if the Ball.

(3) An Offensive Player in control of the ball cannot drive the lane and go airborne indiscriminately. An Offensive Player in control of the Ball must make a decision before he goes airborne: "Can I return to the floor before making contact with a Defensive Player who has taken a legal position on the floor before I go airborne?" The "restricted area" allows the Offensive Player with the Ball to drive the lane and go airborne indiscriminately.

One can see how these Concepts are applied in the countless Casebook Plays and Approved Rulings that have been written over the last five decades.

It is late and past my bed time and I do not want to get riled up thinking of the clueless members of the NCAA Basketball Rules Committees.

Good night all.

MTD, Sr.