What Am I Missing Here ???

[so cal lurker]

Originally Posted by Camron Rust

The Tower Philosophy, as good is at is is also equally flawed. If we actually followed the Tower Philosophy for what it is, we'd also ignore situations when a ball handler barely steps OOB since stepping slightly OOB really has no effect on the game. It essentially creates a nebulous set of violations that are too trivial to call, but, yet, equally trivial violations are expected to never be missed. It is more of an excuse for just approximating knowledge of the rules and recognition of events than anything else.

The Tower philosophy is a kissing cousin of the Soccer concept of "trifling," which is applied primarily to fouls, but sometimes to other violations -- but never to the ball leaving the field of play.

IMHO, the Tower philosophy (like trifling) is a powerful tool in the right hands (a skilled and knowledgeable official) and an unmitigated disaster in the hands of the overwhelmed official who uses it as an excuse rather than a tool. YMMV.