Always a Foul?
 

A1 coming down on a break with the ball heading to the basket. B1 sees him coming and plants himself under the basket. A1 shoots the ball and then makes contact with B1. Contact is in the torso.

Is there ever a situation where this is a no-call? I let one go Friday night because I didn't think it had any bearing on the play. However, after thinking about it I'm not sure if I'm justified in using that as a reason to not call the PC foul.

Was B1 knocked to the floor?

Use the same logic you would for any foul; there is no provision in the rules for ignoring this simply because it's under the basket; it's legitimate defense.

If B1 was disadvantaged or displaced by the contact, call it; if it didn't affect him, then you can let it go.

Did A1 have at least one foot return to the court prior to contact?

It's a judgment play. If you thought that A1 put B1 to the floor, i's an easy P/C. If you thought that B1 flopped, then it's a tougher decision. Even if B1 gave ground, if the contact by A1 was "to and through" the defender and B1 had LGP, it's a charge.

Some block/charge plays are 50/50's, even when you look at them on tape later. In general, I think a no-call seems to get us in more trouble than anything else.

Agreed. I had a play last week where a player stepped in front of me and blocked my view of the contact. BOTH players went down, but I just wasn't sure that I knew what happened and we WERE working 3-person and I was hoping one of the other two officials would step up.

In retrospect, even guessing *might* have been better because neither partner came in with a call -- and when I asked the other two officials, one thought it was a PC foul and the other thought it was a block. The drive was started above the top of the key (T's primary) and went right down the middle of the lane and the lesson I took away was that pinching the paint would've helped me avoid being screened.