Dribbler cuts in front of defender

[JRutledge]

Originally posted by zebraman
Rut,

Sure seems like you're penalizing the defender for doing nothing illegal and taking away their rights as a defender. It would be a tough sell for sure, but when there is a case book play that specifically says to call this on the offense and the defensive player has violated no rule, I don't see how you can call this a foul on the defense.

OK.

Originally posted by zebraman

At basketball camp last summer, we were told that the offense initiates contact 40% of the time, yet the defense is called for the foul 90% of the time. They asked us to quit protecting the offensive player so much.

You had to go to a camp to learn that?

Originally posted by zebraman

Comparing this to a multiple foul is an invalid comparison. A ref may ignore one of the fouls but the right team still gets penalized.

Comparing this to a mulitple foul is totally valid. This is something that probably happens about once a game at least, but we almost always decide to call one foul. It does not matter if the proper team is penalized, you could penalize them further or the proper players. And I have never seen this called (ever, ever, ever) when this happens at the end of the game when a dribbler is running around and the defense is trying to foul.

Part officiating is calling what is expected to be called within the game as well as what many of the rules say. As a baseball umpire, if a throw beats a runner to the base, it is expected to call that runner out if he makes a normal slide and the defender makes a normal effort to make a tag. Or the double play situation at second base, we do not nit pick the touching of second. Or the most common thing in basketball, you do not call a shooting foul on out of control shooters. But if that is the way you choose to call the game, so be it. In my parts if I make that call, I might have to T up a lot of people and try to explain something that is total judgement and a rule that is inconsistent with "legal guarding principles" to be the maverick that I would have to be to make that call.

Peace