NCAA Rule 10, Section 1, Art. 2 interpretation
 

NCAA Rule 10 - Fouls and Penalties, Section 1. Personal Fouls, Article 2:

A player shall not contact an opponent with his or her hand unless
such contact is only with the opponent’s hand while it is on the ball and is
incidental to an attempt to play the ball.

What is the definition of "incidental?" Does this mean a defender can slap in a downward motion in an attempt to steal the ball and incidentally hit the hand, thus no foul would be called since the defender intended to hit the ball but missed?

Yep. Are you surprised by that?
Did you think that the officials were missing fouls until you learned this rule?

;)

I know I'm being picky, but I don't like the word "missed" in your description. It's not that it's okay to hit the opponent as long as you intended to hit the ball. It's too easy to take that idea and run with it to places that are not true.

What's being described is attempting to play the ball, but unintentionally getting the opponent's hand while it's on the ball. Thus, you haven't missed at all. You were unable to get to the ball because of the hand.

And I've had a broken finger from being hit (as a player) in exactly such a play and it was not a foul. :eek: The finger had a 90 degree bend sideways in a place that should have been straight. This was probably 12-15 years ago, but the rule is still the same.

The irony is that the friend that did it to me broke his arm about two weeks later while playing basketball.

Sounds like everybody was safer with your friend on the bench :D