Closely Guarded Count

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by Fritz

Watched a lot of basketball this past week, like everyone else, but had a question about a closely guarded count. Does the player with the ball have to be facing the defender for there to be a CG count? Don't see that in the rules, but saw several situations where the offensive player would have the ball with his back to the basket, just outside the lane, and be dribbling trying to set up the defender for a post move. But no CG count was shown by the official. I wouldn't consider a few set-up dribbles to be actual moves to the basket, so why wouldn't you have a count here?

The common opinion is that a player is not "guarding" unless facing an opponent.

That being said, maybe there was no count because the officials did not feel they were in the proper distance (6 feet for men's basketball).

Without seeing the play in question or talking to the officials, it is hard to know why there was no count or if there were other reasons.

Peace