coach yells at opponent

[Hawks Coach]

Originally posted by Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.

Why is it that the best players in the world get to make illegal contact to play the game. It seems to me that the better the player the less illegal contact so be required of them to play the game. Just a wild and wacky concept that I must be the only one has ever thought of.

One reason is that all players are faster and more powerful. Players will approach each other with greater strength and speed, and therefore the level of contact is greater in general throughout the game. And it is not conact that you can say is due to one player or another frequently. Now the reaching out and touching someone contact is not explainable by this speed and power concept, but I guess the general mindset is that much greater levels of contact are clearly incidental, so don't blow the whistle on a touch foul.

[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

Coach, you are giving excuses for players to play out of control instead of in control. Just because a player is bigger and stronger is no excuse for excess contact. The more skilled the player the less illegal contact there should be.

[Hawks Coach]

There is contact all the time, at all levels, oh, but we have had this conversation before. At a high level, you have two powerful quick people making very hard contact without any clear player at fault. This cannot and should not be called a foul. I am not making excuses for it, I am explaining a feature of high level play that you see watching any college game. As for the touch contact that is clearly one player's fault, officials are less likely to punish that when there is a lot of unpunishable contact which goes on in the same game. And their bosses agree with that philosophy, and the resulting basketball games are terrific.

I really enjoyed the Duke-Maryland game last night (til I fell asleep from a long week!), and it was very physical, but such great basketball - especially the first half.