Lane Spaces

[CMHCoachNRef]

Originally Posted by Snaqwells

Yep, stupid rule IMO. But I'm not king.

Shaq,
Not sure what part of the rule you are deeming as stupid, but I will tell you that as soon as I saw the rule change up the lane by one position last year, as a coach, I saw a large loophole. When the offensive player in the second lane position placed himself/herself at the very back of the lane position, it was very difficult for the defender in the first lane position to see the player.
There were two techniques that provided the offensive player with a very good chance to get a rebound. First of all, players could legally get their upperbody leaning behind the defender's lane position (similar to leaning into the lane). It was very difficult for the calling official to detect whether the offensive player's feet were breakiing the plane in anyway since they had to see THROUGH the defensive player. The second technique allowed a player to all but get a one step running start (while NOT breaking the vertical plane of the lane space) BEHIND the defender in the first position.

If one of these techniques circling behind the defender in the first lane position was effective in one or the first couple FTs during a game, the defender was then much more vulnerable to a traditional quick step toward the lane and then down the lane by the offensive player.

By forcing the offensive player to have at least one foot "near" (is that kind of like the SIX FOOT "closely guarded" rule?) the lane, these techniques were basically made illegal.

I will NEVER agree with the fact that players have to wait until the ball hits before beginning the process of boxing out. I know, I know, I know. The reason this was done is to "clean up rebounding on free throws." The initial change -- the defender in the 4th space was not allowed to break the free throw plane to protect the free throw shooter. I was fine with that. It was getting dangerous for the FT shooter and there were some injuries particularly a number of ACL injuries to girl players. The rest of these changes to me do not make sense. We have players shooting shots from 15 feet from the basket -- many from the center of the lane (i.e. where free throws are taken from) -- ALL GAME LONG. Why is it that we are only concerned about physical play on rebounds of 15 foot shots that are taken from the free throw line that count as one point???

If we are truly concerned about safety, etc. on FTs, perhaps we should clear the lane on ALL FTs. We would then roll a special NFHS dice that would have 100 numbers on it. 73% (I believe that is the number that the NFHS said was acceptable) of the numbers would result in the ball going to the defense while 27% of the numbers would result in a throw-in by the offense under the basket. I don't agree with this at all, but it is just an extension of the current trend.