Questions for NCAA refs

[bekays]

I'm a high school coach as well as a booster and fan of NCAA basketball, specifically San Diego state. We have a situation, not unlike what I see at the high school level with a parent and his child. I'm not sure if there are rules pertaining to this, but I figured what the hey, I need all the ammo I can get when I sit down with the athletic director this week.

This is your usual obnoxiuos parent, regularly leaves his seat 10 rows up to come down to the court side to yell at the referee's. During a dead ball situation he actually came onto the court to talk to his son (not onto the playing area but onto the floor). Twice a member of his family came out of the stands during a time out and made it to the huddle to speak to this player. This parent hass many times talked to his child during 'free' situations as well as other players.

Now it would seem that our head coach has not or hasn't been effective in reducing this behavior, but as the season has progressed it has gotten significantly worse. Many of the booster's dislike how it looks, especially when him having a conversation with his son made ESPN, fortunately no one address the issue in the media. Many fear that his behavior is going to get worse.

My questions is, in the NCAA or even in the MWC is there a rule about fan interaction with players during the course of an athletic event? Are things of this nature bordering on bringing penalties to our team?

Thanks in Advance

[JRutledge]

If the question you are asking are there different rules at the HS level that are used at the college level? There are no such rules that I am aware of. There are guidelines that are given but they are not something that addresses this kind of situation. If this is a concern someone with your school should do something or opposing school or security will do something.

It is not an accepted practice to penalize a team for the actions of fans. It is not always clear who the fans are with so you do not just penalize a team for something the team members did not do. Officials will have game management take care of those kinds of issues or game management will take it upon themselves to handle the situation.

Peace

[Edited by JRutledge on Feb 13th, 2006 at 01:50 AM]

[Snake~eyes]

This is not covered by the playing rules.

[Dribble]

By rule though (NCAA 2-9-1), "The officials shall: Penalize unsporting conduct by a player, coach, substitute, team attendant or follower."

It continues as a case: "Who is responsible for behavior of specatators? RULING: The home management or game committee, insofar as it can reasonably be expected to control the spectators, is responsible. The officials may call indirect technical fouls on either team when its supporters act in such a way as to interfere with the proper conduct of the game, such technical fouls do not count as team fouls."

So while primary responsibility lies in the game management people, the officials do have the power to assess a technical.

I agree with JRut though that it's not a common practice. I exercised this once in my life because a parent was going over the top. I didn't hear a peep out of that team's followers for the rest of the game! haha...

[Dribble]

To add, I can't believe that security allows this player's family to get down on the court. Even if he may be the star player, no "star" treatment should be given by game management.

Unfortunately, even if this parent is seatbelted, I don't know what you're going to do about him screaming from row 10. It'd take quite a bit for him to bring a T onto the team. Try a Hannibal Lecter muzzle...

Let us know what happens after your talk with the AD.

[JugglingReferee]

It sounds to me that both the head coach and home game management have missed the opportunity to deal with this clown.

He *** needed to be sat down after the first time. Like they say in the world of investing, "There's no better time that the present."

I think it's going to be harder to enforce sitting the spectator, but you have to do it, and now!

[ChuckElias]

I can't give you any specifics, Bekay, but we had a similar situation at a D1 school near me and the player was dismissed from the team. He is now playing at a D3 school.

I was told -- and I have no direct knowledge of the situation -- that the dismissal was due to the parent's behavior during games.

This is something that the school and/or basketball program has to deal with. The referees are not empowered to deal with the parent if all he does is come to the court to talk to the coach or player. If he is berating the officials, then the officials could have him removed from the arena.

[bekays]

Thanks for all the input so far. Its been good information. However as the season heads towards an end I doubt this player, who is slated to go to the draft next year, will be dismissed. Dismissal of this player now would ruin NCAA chances.

After further researching I know the head coach did talk to the parent about 4 games ago, he stayed away for one game, but his actions have grown increasingly more aggressive, especially towards officials when his son doesn't get a call or gets a foul called on him. He has even yelled at players on the team for not passing the ball to his son.

I'm not to worried about him screaming from the stands, obnoxious behavior of that nature in a 12000 seat arena is not always something that is controllable. But I'd rather him be doing it from 10 rows up then pacing the sideline yelling at the referee or stepping onto the court. However, his attempts to interact with players on the court, not to mention abuse of the referee's is becoming questionable.

You are right that game management crew has been less than strict if a fan can make it onto the court to the team huddle without being stopped. One of the issues I'm going to bring up. We all know what happened with Players going into the stands in the NBA. We don't need fans on the court, period. Many of us worry that this could escalate, and the possible safety of officials and players may be at risk. Thus we are pressing the issue to the AD this week to make all reasonable efforts to ensure the safety of everyone invovled.

[ShadowStripes]

This is a matter for the Athletic Director to address if Coach Fisher will not. I know the AD at SDSU is relatively new and maybe he doesn't feel comfortable taking on the coach yet. However, if you and other prominent boosters are complaining, I would imagine this would carry some weight with the AD and the university administration. I don't know the particulars of this situation, but my recollection of the Fisher years at Michigan were that of a very loosely controlled program.

[Texas Aggie]

Apparantly, the officials at the games aren't having problems with it. If they were, you could bet SDSU would have done something, as they would have heard from the league office. I've been in games with a few thousand people, and the fact is that you can't hear what any one person is saying. At least, I couldn't. Unless, of course, you were right up on the baseline near bleachers, but even then, so many are yelling so much, that's its impossible to follow.

[Gator]

You might want to check with the conference. I assume it is conference by conference but there is announcement at each of our D1 games: conference rules state that fans will be evicted if they enter the court area.

Our arena not only announces the rule but enforces it. In our case the court area includes both end "zones", and extends about 2 or 3' behind both benches and about 10' behind the center of the table. The area is marked off with stanchions like banks use with a tape spread between each. There are also arena guards stationed near each bench and at other points. They help folks understand the rules if they "miss" the announcement.

[deecee]

just sounds like a case of the coach not having enough cohones to fix the problem (period).