End of Game fouls

[MohonFan14]

I am a fan of basketball and hopefully a HS Coach if given the opportunity. My question to the forum is in the last 2 or 3 minutes of a game and the team with the lead is getting fouled to get them to the foul line, are referees taught to allow a certain amount of contact if it doesn't cause a turnover or injury? My point being that though there are fouls being performed, many officials are allowing the fouls. I think it is based on trying not to give too much to the losing team, along with trying to balance the leading team's right to have the obvious foul being called. I think as a ref I would have a hard time balancing those two things - what do ya'll think??

[Larks]

Originally posted by MohonFan14
I am a fan of basketball and hopefully a HS Coach if given the opportunity. My question to the forum is in the last 2 or 3 minutes of a game and the team with the lead is getting fouled to get them to the foul line, are referees taught to allow a certain amount of contact if it doesn't cause a turnover or injury? My point being that though there are fouls being performed, many officials are allowing the fouls. I think it is based on trying not to give too much to the losing team, along with trying to balance the leading team's right to have the obvious foul being called. I think as a ref I would have a hard time balancing those two things - what do ya'll think??

To quote a T-Shirt I saw in Referee magazine...."It's nothing until I call it"!

All kidding aside...we are not trained to overlook contact at certain times but I do think we try to be consistent with our calls. In otherwords...if it's a foul in the first qtr...it's a foul in the 4th.

Larks

[Bart Tyson]

If it is certain the players are trying to stop the clock, then i will be quick to call the foul. I don't want a hard foul. And i don't want to put the players in a position to have to foul hard.

[tharbert]

What you don't hear the coach yelling is that he wants his players to commit a foul on the ball handler while attempting to go for the ball. An intentional trip, shove, or hold has a penalty of two free throws and the offense gets the ball back. Coach doesn't want that!

I tend to have a fairly quick whistle when the coach on defense is yelling for his players to commit a foul. Now it is the defense's intention to foul rather than to play to avoid it. IMO - Fouls can get progressively more severe if you don't call what may have been considered on the ticky-tack side in the first quarter. But, there still has to be a foul. You can’t call it if it isn’t there. And don’t get me wrong here…I’m not suggesting penalizing offense for doing a good job of passing the ball to keep it away from defense.

Case in point: Coach B is yelling at team B to commit a foul. A1 is in the backcourt and B1 runs up bumps A1. R1 has a "no call" advantage/disadvantage...and he wouldn't have called it in the first quarter but technically, it was a foul. B1 looks up for the foul and not getting one dives at A1 dislodging the ball and knocking A1 to the floor. R1 calls the second more severe (possibly dangerous) foul.