Face Guarding

[SMEngmann]

I called faceguarding earlier this season too and did so without warning. I felt the player was doing so deliberately and attempting to gain an advantage, so I made the call. I don't think warning for unsportsmanlike acts are appropriate, I think they must be punished immediately or you risk inconsistency, the "Well you gave him a warning why not me" type of thing.

On a similar note, I had to call a T today on a player for dislodging the ball on an inbounds pass (reaching across the plane to do so). Interestingly, this happened to occur on the inbounds pass after I double T'ed that team's irate assistant coach. I'd never seen that happen before and it was the worst possible timing for that call. I hope that type of situation never happens again for me in a game.