If it isn't significant why has there been such a debate over it? This is a fairly big change. I'm not in the habit of having a rules meeting when meeting with coaches, but covering this, especially at the beginning of the season will help when it has to be called in a game.

What? Thomas Henry Huxley Quoted On The Basketball Forum ???
 

This is not a "big change". There's been a lot of debate because the NFHS, with a little help from IAABO, "made the easy look difficult". IAABO broached this issue last season by stepping out of it's role of educating officials and, instead, made up interpretations that didn't match the rules that existed at the time. This year, the NFHS made it worse by publishing a point of emphasis without backing it with a rule, or a penalty.

“If you left a hundred monkeys in front of a hundred typewriters for a hundred years eventually you’d manage to get a Shakespearean sonnet.” (Thomas Henry Huxley)

.. and give them another 100 years and they could do a better job of writing basketball rules than the NFHS Basketball Rules Committee.

If we've had all these questions about it, don't you think there's a chance coaches might be a little confused?

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While I understant this POV, I've found it a slippery slope. If you discuss it with Captains/Coaches, then you MUST call it during the game - every time. Because if not, then you get the - "Get him off him." "Hey, that's a hand check! You said you would call that!"

I prefer the short, coaches meeting - sportsmanship, properly equipped, good luck.

I have never said in a coaches meeting I'm going to call this or that. I understand where your coming from. As for this new interp, I'm pretty sure when it happens and I call it, I'm almost certain all it will take is one time.

Absolutely. Given that the game is supposed to be "an extension of the classroom", then it is incumbent upon us to at minimum mention 'hand-checking' & 'encroachment into the FT circle/contact with FT shooter" rule/call--if for no other reason than to help ingrain the habits of proper play.

I'm totally with you. With so much that can, and will, happen during a game that leads to objections from coaches, why not take a few seconds to cover something new or different?

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I think the coaches ought to take an hour or two to review the rulebook themselves AND WITH THEIR PLAYERS and notify them of the changes.

As a courtesy, our association sends out a letter to our schools briefly outlining the rule changes and POEs for the upcoming season, and we also discuss them at preseason scrimmages and clinics.

But once the season has begun, I don't think it's necessary for us to be reminding coaches about changes and POEs.

I will never mention hand checking in a coaches meeting.

There's a difference between what coaches SHOULD do, and what they WILL do.

I don't count on anybody doing or knowing what they should. Call me a cynic.

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They'll still object.

Esteemed Forum Referees:
Please do not construe what I'm saying as "authoritative" because I am just a simple basketball ref whom--by continual rules study, feedback from superiors, and praxis--simply aims to perform better each time I do a game. But given the huge variance in opinion here on what "ought be" covered in a pre-game regarding the POE/rules clarifications---then it would seem to a casual bystander that we refs differ on what ought be and not ought be covered in a pre-game.

If we simply dismiss these POE issues (and assume coaches and players know them like we do), then the pre-game will descend into nothing more than a perfunctory blaise ritual [viz: waste of time]. One could then plausibly argue that we ought to just dismiss the pregame altogether and immediately start with the jump ball, no?

It largely is already.

Plenty of officials would love to do this.

For the most part, it is a waste of time. My pregame is simple: "Respect Your Opponent. Respect Yourself. Respect the Game of Basketball." Anything more than that is unnecessary and will only lead to problems.

And you are not "dismissing" the POE. Talk about it in the pregame with your partners, if you feel the need, but doing it with the coaches and players is only going to bring problems.

The best way to discuss a POE with coaches and players is with your whistle.