Technical Foul

[Back In The Saddle]

Originally Posted by REFVA

It just part of game management. Although the rule book states that, I always count the number of player before I put it in play or my partners do and give me the go ahead. I want that T to have a meaning when I give one out. I know I am going to get a big thrashing for that comment. Just pour it on..

I would give it to someone coming on when not acknowledge or Also I have to clarify at the High school level they should know, at the Fr or Middle school I would not be too easy to give one out.

A technical foul is just what it says, technical. It's a way of dealing with infractions of the technical aspects of the game. Why must it have any meaning? Sure, we debate a lot about the judgement aspects of giving T's for unsporting behavior. But there are many basic, objective technical infractions for which the proscribed penalty is a technical foul.

Yes, we should count the players. Yes, we should castigate ourselves if we allow a team to put more than five players on the floor. We should prevent what we can reasonably prevent, and this is reasonably preventable. But just because we don't happen to catch this infraction doesn't mean we should set aside the penalty for it.

Everybody on the planet knows what the penalty for six players on the floor is. People living in caves who have never seen a basketball know what the penalty is. Why would you shy away from calling what everybody expects you to call? It's not personal, it's not even confrontational/behavioral/game-management, it's a technical infraction of the rules by a team and merits a technical foul.

You want impact? Enforce the appropriate penalty for this careless/clueless behavior and the players will be significantly more aware of how many players are coming onto the floor after a timeout from that moment on.

What other basic rules will you set aside?