High school rule: player entitled to his space on the floor

[bob jenkins]

Originally Posted by Mike Goodwin

Per Jon Levinson's dialogue with his counterpart at the NFHS office that he shared with us on FB today:

"As promised, this is what I got from "up on high": The NFHS Basketball Rules would not consider incidental contact (even though not in a legal guarding position) as a foul in this scenario. Player B1 is not in a legal guarding position by 4-23-2 standards, but “every player is entitled to a spot on the playing court provided such a player gets there first without illegally contacting an opponent.” (4-23-1) If contact with B1 is avoidable and they do not impede the progress of A1 – incidental contact.

The NFHS rules would only rule contact as a foul if B1 impeded or initiated contact with the offensive player."

The FED case play had "In dribbling away, A1 contacts B1's leg, loses control of the ball and falls to the floor." -- that seems like more than incidental contact. I'm not sure the clarification from Jon helps (and I'm not blaming Jon for this)