NFHS Free Throws

[Back In The Saddle]

Originally Posted by refguy

Agreed. And if officials had done a better job of calling rebounding fouls on free throws, the Fed never would have changed the rule.

Perhaps. But the NFHS itself is partly to blame. Free throws are the busiest thing we do as an official. Sure jump balls have lots of arcane rules, but nobody knows them and nobody cares and you only jump it once a game. Throw ins can be busy too, especially if there's heavy pressure. But free throws take the cake.

Just take a minute and go through all the stuff we have to know and do on every free throw. Have we got the right shooter? Do we have the right number of shots? Does the book have the foul recorded properly? Have they given us the proper information in return? Do we have the right rebounders in the right spots? The right number of offense and defense? Are they all set and are their toes off the lines? Are they "sword fighting" or "posing" in ways that bear watching? Is the shooting team delaying? Huddling? What if they are? Is the shooter's toe on the line? What if he fumbles the ball away? Which team gets the delayed dead ball and which gets the immediate? Which players am I watching for leaving early? What if we have simultaneous violations? Defense and shooter both violate? Shooter and a player not on the lane? Do we have subs? Did the shot hit the rim? And just how do I watch the shot and players entering early? And how do I watch the shot and watch the players on my side of the lane setting up for the rebound while I'm watching across for entering early? Then there's the 10 count, the chop, the clock start properly, subs coming up late, the shooter toeing the line, players on the arc, players in backcourt, potential time out requests.

In short, there are way more things to watch, and way more places to be watching than you can possibly ever watch. So we get kind of selective in what we watch. We watch the objectively measured things (violations) in preference to the subjectively measured things (fouls).

If the NFHS really wants to make it easier to watch all this stuff, then they need to adjust the mechanics a little.

* Have officials watch the players on their own side of the lane, rather than across. That way we're seeing how the players set up for the rebound while we watch for entering early rather than watching feet on the players across the lane then shifting our gaze to the rebounders on our own side.
* Let players enter on the release. This eliminates the need to watch the shot hit and players' feet at the same time.
* Put the third official to work in three-person mechanics. Make that official responsible for the shot hitting the rim, and players not on the lane entering too soon...or some other division of labor that actually reduces the amount of work the L and C have on free throws. Whoever's lame idea it was to put the T standing on the division line during free throws and tell him to relax until he's needed ought to be beaten (even more) senseless.

Just my $0.02