NCAA must call this different-with video

[Rich]

Originally Posted by Jurassic Referee

What does making the game "better" have to do with the call?

You call chin-up "T"s because the act is against the rules. Whether the player met the rules criteria needed to have a chin-up "T" though is strictly up to the judgment of the official. If you don't think it warrants a "T" under the rules, you don't call it. It's that simple. Some people watching the video think it should be a "T"; some don't. Hell, on this one I'd bet that you'd get different evaluators disagreeing on the call also, depending on their own personal judgment.

Whether calling the technical foul in this case actually "betters" the game though is irrelevant imo. In this case, if you don't call the "T", you do so because you didn't think that it was a "chin-up" in the first place. Personally, I put most "better the game" comments in the same hopper as "game interrupters". I think that both mantras are used by some officials (not you, Rich. I know better) as handy excuses to avoid calling righteous technical fouls.

Jmo.

It's a good question to ask, IMO, in the grey areas. One where one is unsure whether a technical is appropriate in a particular place. I'd never ask the question in order to avoid a technical.

I watched the video a number of times and it just didn't call out to me. And to me, it better be obvious in this situation. Even at the high school level. A love tap of the backboard on the way down may be a bit of showmanship, but is it necessarily unsporting? The two are not synonymous.