Pressing with a big lead

[drothamel]

I've heard this philosophy espoused many times, and I don't think that it implies you should make things up. I think it means that you should use your judgement with regard to advantage/disadvantage, and the effect it is having on the game. If, for example, the team in the lead has been pressing most of the game, and you have been letting some contact go, it may be time to call that contact. This is especially true if it is starting to affect the attitudes/actions of the team getting blown-out. I think it is similar to the game management technique you apply when teams are starting to get more physical with eachother, or starting to talk more-- all that contact that was ignored previously, now has to be called in order to get the players back under control.

Now, if a team is up by 30 points, pressing, and getting steals because the losing team is just throwing the ball away, there is nothing that can be done. I've seen games like that before. It isn't pretty, but you can't just make stuff up.

Also-- "a foul is a foul is a foul" will get you into a lot of trouble. Every foul occurs within a context. For example, let's say your crew has called two or three illegal screens in a game. . .now there are under ten seconds to play, there is a drive to the basket, and there is an illegal screen away from the ball. I dare say that you would call that screen, unless the offensive player ends up with the ball. In all of the lectures I have listend to from officials at the highest levels, I have never, ever heard any of them say that "a foul is a foul is a foul" or anything even approaching that philosophy. To the contrary, I've heard more than once, "you can have the same play at two different points in a game, call it two different ways, and be right both times."

Of course, variety is the spice of life, and without differing philosophies, we wouldn't have boards like this one!