NCAAM Potential Rules Changes

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by JRutledge

More dumb media commentary about rules.

Charging Calls Drawn By Off-The-Ball And/Or Help-Side Defenders

Off-the-ball and/or help-side defenders drawing charging calls are ruining basketball. Is there anything worse than seeing an offensive player make an athletic move to beat his primary defender, head toward the basket poised to do something dramatic, only to be robbed of the play’s crescendo because another defender slid in front of the driver?

While “sacrificing one’s body” to step in front of an on-coming dunker may reflect commitment to one’s team, it is not really “a basketball play.” Stealing the ball, blocking or otherwise contesting the shot should be a help-side defender’s only options.

The charge drawn by the off-the-ball defender punishes an offensive player for taking the initiative. It bails out the primary defender who has been beaten. In other words, the incentives created are perverse to good basketball.

This is not to suggest there should be no offensive fouls called. A player with the ball should not be able to lower his shoulder and ram through his defender like Benny Snell bulling through the line on third-and-short.

What needs to be eliminated entirely, though, is off-the-ball and/or help-side defenders being rewarded for impeding drivers by drawing charges. To do that, one could expand the restricted zone, the area under the goal in which defenders are presently not allowed to draw charges, to encompass the entire lane.

Or perhaps the rule is changed to say a charge can only be drawn by an offensive player’s primary defender and it is then left to the discretion of game officials to enforce that.

I know that you college guys, with your restricted zones (I do realize that there is a difference between off-the-ball defenders, help-side defenders, secondary defenders, and primary defenders), may agree with the writer, and disagree with me, but "taking charges" has been an accepted defensive strategy in the game of basketball for a very long time.

NFHS 4-37-3: Every player is entitled to a spot on the playing court, provided the player gets there first without illegally contacting an opponent.

In my opinion, drawing charges is a real basketball play, is not ruining basketball, and is not perverse to good basketball.

It's been around for a very long time, and is a very exciting part of the game.

Listen to the fans excitedly roar after one of their players "takes a charge".

Watch the excitement of the defender's teammates as they peel him off the floor.

And watch the defender, no matter how badly is tailbone hurts, bounce right back, showing all smiles, and hustling to his new offensive position.

Dollars to doughnuts, I bet that this writer gets literally orgasmic at dunk contests.