The joys of my evening

[Rich]

Originally Posted by Jurassic Referee

And what's really funny to me is when I watch the D1 guys that I consider excellent officials, none of 'em seem to come in with the pre-conceived notions that I've been reading in the last few pages. They all seem to just call each play separately and individually on it's own merits without saying "Oh, he got the ball. That can't be a foul." If they feel the contact was illegal, they just call it. And the amazing part is they also call it before the ball goes in too, without worrying about "patient whistles", etc.


Novel idea, ain't it?

I believe in the patient whistle, but whether the ball goes in has no bearing whatsoever on whether I call a foul. The patient whistle, to me, has always meant that we don't anticipate calls. Let the play start, develop, finish, decide, call (or no call). I don't look at the ball going through the hoop and say, "Screw it, he scored anyway. Let's not stop the game with a pointless "and-one." And yet I have heard other officials say that they've had too many "and ones" whatever that means. I don't care if I have 0 or 10 as long as the foul called is one where the foul put the shooter at a disadvantage (which has nothing to do with the ball not going in the hole, IMO).

I certainly do think D1/NBA officials will see a clean, athletic block up top and will consider that as part of the decision making process, so I guess we'll have to disagree there. It's a great defensive play -- it doesn't give the player license to be out of control or flatten the shooter, but some contact on the way down isn't necessarily going to be a foul, either. We make fun of the NBA(E) all the time, but those guys are excellent play callers when it comes to fouls, IMO. YMMV.

Off to do a game.