King for a day

[26 Year Gap]

Originally Posted by CMHCoachNRef

Big difference between "great distance" and "closely guarded". If you are holding the ball with your toes on the top of the circle and the defender is standing with a toe over the free throw line, I still maintain that this is NOT being closely guarded.

Similar to several other rules that do not get tightly called by the book due to the penalty involved -- such as the technical foul for not re-entering the court on a throw-in, I have seen numerous colleagues NOT start a closely guarded count until the defender gets within 3 to 4 feet. Hence, the reason it is a point of emphasis. I maintain, it would be easier to get consistency by going to a three to four foot rule.

6 ft is 6 ft and because colleagues are setting aside a rule doesn't make it right. It just leads to, "The refs weren't calling that last game". The rules committee has a cross section of members and they determined that 6 ft is closely guarded. That is when I begin my counts. I am not going to change my view on this unless the rule changes.

The not entering after a throw-in was actually on the NFHS survey this past spring. Hopefully, they do change the penalty. They did not a few years back because of the penalty for other delays returning to the court, however, that could be covered as an exception or note and leave the T penalty in place for not coming back on the floor after a time-out for example.