POE - FT Shooter Contact

[crosscountry55]

Originally Posted by Nevadaref

From the 2015-16 NFHS Preseason Guide on page 6:
"If the defender makes contact with the free thrower that is more than incidental, a personal foul is the correct ruling. It is a violation in that situation when the free throw is missed and there is incidental contact on the free thrower."

My rules interpreter and I had a long telephone conversation about this the other night. He didn't want to "take an association position" on how our officials should apply judgment in this situation because positions and judgment are contradictory.

Instead, he said, "focus on the rule." I took that to also mean, "focus on the POE." The impression I got was to err on the side of incidental, and anything greater than that is probably at least an intentional personal considering the defenders are not allowed by rule to be in the semi-circle in the first place. In other words, there isn't much desire for common fouls to be called here. The violation should speak for itself, and if the shooter gets taken out, intentional personal (or in an unusual case an intentional technical if the ball happened to already be dead when the contact occurred).

We ended the conversation by talking about how all of this can be minimized if not eliminated by two means: A) making it part of the pre-game conference, at least early in the season, and B) consistently calling it early and often in games. After a few substitute free throws, the coach will quickly recalibrate his/her philosophy.