Advantage/Disadvantage

[rainmaker]

Thanks for your clarification here, I appreciate your taking it seriously and not giving me the usual, "Well, if you think it's a foul, then call it!"

I agree with everything you say, especially the part about the call in the last ten seconds. I've thoughtlessly called a couple of those and it's embarassing -- especially when it involves pointless free throws.

The calls I feel uneasy about are sort of borderline. For instance, if the defender contacts the wrist or forearm on a shot, and the contact is firm enough to be heard, it's clearly a foul. But short of that smacking sound, where does one draw the line? A marginal player can't make the shot if a hand is waved in her face, so any contact at all
confers a disadvantage, and unless very minor is realistically a foul. Okay. But the same marginal player on defense could make contact that would actually move the arm, and it's not any disadvantage to the really skilled shooter. It feels to me as though the line for where the foul is called should be moved a little .

Yet even as I say that, I feel uncomfortable.
I don't think I'm trying to level the playing field. I agree that the better team should win and the rules should be applied evenly. ("Evenly" is a much better word than "fairly" which is very hard to interpret, in my opinion.) I just can't seem to make it come out even. If I try to be "color=blind" as in the jersey color, it feels as though the very poor team is being penalized for being unskilled. Yet, if I try to take skill level into consideration, I penalize the more skilled tean. And what good do free throws do to a very poor team?

If I sound confused, it's only because I am!!
Perhaps I'm thinking too much....