Technical Foul

[Adam]

Originally Posted by TimTaylor

Lots of good comments.

To touch on this issue a little more from the officials' perspective, I feel it's an important part of game management for the officials to recognize when teams may deliberately foul in an end game situation and be prepared for it.

To me, one of the most important things the officials need to do when this occurs, is to be right on top of it and call the foul right away. This is not the time for a patient whistle. Delaying the call even momentarily only encourages the players to get more physical and the potential of a deliberate foul becoming an intentional foul increases.

Far too often I've seen officials take the "no blood, no foul" approach in these situations, forcing the defender to almost mug the opponent to get a whistle.

I agree with this to a point; my rule of thumb is if the offense is just standing there letting themselves get fouled, I'll have a quick trigger. However, if they're trying to avoid the foul, I'm not going to reward the defense by calling something a foul when it really isn't.