Why does all of this matter? <gasp> Some teams actually record games and keep them for...the entire season. Yes, both teams could say no, but it is a simple matter of asking for the video and getting a response.

You are obviously biased in favor of the team wearing white. That is OK, but the actions in this edited clip should have been officiated differently. Show us an edited clip of similar plays from the other side and we will say the same thing. My goodness.

Seriously? Do you really think people look up this definition before saying a school is their rival? Seriously?

You know, there is nothing wrong with taking things literally, but sometimes people say things that have an underlying message. I don't think you got it when asked about the true sense of the word; I didn't take that as a call for a definition of rival. Even if I did, after reading the definition I would not post the definition after realizing rivals are made up of more than this definition. For instance, schools that are close - with kids that grew up together attending each - may be considered rivals. Thinking that one must compare trophy cases before considering schools rivals is just...

On that play it would have been a block on Red34 if White 42 was there to play basketball and continued his natural movement toward the ball.

But 42 extends his arms to push 34 before any contact is made and that's why the only foul to get there is on him.

As for some of the other arguments being made, there is no defense of #34's actions regardless of what else was happening in the game. And based on the lack of video evidence and overall body language of the players I find it HIGHLY unlikely that there was anything similar going on at the other end of the court as chseagle keeps suggesting. I'd bet any amount of money that if there was, we would have seen this escalate into an all out brawl.

I think the main points again are:

1) The complete lack of control and awareness demonstrated by the game officials. One of my pet peeves is when fans/coaches say to officials, "You're gonna get somebody hurt out there." I think it's such an ignorant comment and 99.9% of the time is totally off base. In this instance, it would have been completely justified and in many of the environments I've been in, a parent would have tried to come onto the court to address the officials, #34, and/or the HC of the white team.

2) The Connell coach and administration should be held accountable for allowing #34 to engage in this type of behavior on the court. Personally, I have never seen a player commit a series of fouls like the one on the video. Of course we do not have the whole game tape but again, nothing justifies that type of goonery on a basketball court. Maybe something was said to him on the sidelines but after the 2nd foul he should not have been in the game IMO. Since the officials did not take care of business, the coach and administrators should be ashamed that they allowed that to continue, especially since you can see the kid smirking after almost each of his acts.

"Who, Me ? ? ?" (with Palms Up)
 

For several days I resisted the temptation to watch this link, settling instead for basking in all the righteous indignation of those responding, some of which I thought might have been purely reactionary, piling-on, and unnecessary.
Then I watched it.
The thought first struck me that some association did a great job of staging a real-to-life game complete with opposing team players to help members identify situations with hard fouls, flagrant fouls, and precursors to worse things to come if not dealt with. Then I watched the link again. It was for real!
Seems now that all the righteous indignation was not undeserving.
Will try to suggest this for an upcoming association meeting along with that Georgia State Association training video on the topic.
My guess is that the Eagles did real well in football that fall.

My two cents:

Did anyone notice #34 and #42 talking and slapping hands after some of the fouls? Seems this may have been pre planned?

It does not matter that the person taking the video only filmed the "rough plays" being made by the white team. If it was the same on both ends the refs should be sanctioned for letting it go to a football game, or they should have changed uniforms and moved it outside to the grass.

Just basically, in my opinion, very poor officiating. I mean when you get a player that runs 3ft then shoves another player 10ft away and you call a common foul? wth!!!

chs, although I dont like talking about other posters on the boards, as I know very little myself, I feel as your comments may be a little one sided against the AD and defending the white team. It really does not matter if play was rough on the other end of the floor, it does not make what the white team is doing ok.

Again, just my two cents.

I agree, it seems to me that #34 exemplifies a failure of coaching. Unless #34's dog had died, this is behavior that would have shown up sooner; either in practice or previous games.

I also agree that if red had behaved similarly in this game, they would have likely broken into a brawl.

Judging by the six plays we saw, I'm assuming white got their a$$es handed to them on the score board. That might explain (not justify) the officials not handing out intentional fouls like candy.

I have. Last season. None were flagrant, but after the first hard foul and watching him off ball, I had my radar up. In a minute of game play I personally hit him with 3 fouls (the final one intentional) and he was on the bench. He didn't come back into the game.

I also worked a game where the visiting team gave up a huge run to start the second half and decided to thug it up the rest of the game. Three technicals and a flagrant foul later....of course every foul where bodies fly I am lingering and likely closing ground to make sure I'm there in case something happens and, better yet, preventing things from happening just by letting people see my stripes.

I have no problem putting focus on a troublemaker on the court and making sure I get every foul he may commit.

I guess that's my point. You took care of business and then the coach sat him the rest of the game.

I have seen kids come into games and commit hard fouls. Like 34, usually an oversixed football player who doesnt know how to play basketball. But after the first foul, we as officials have our radar up and will call it every time he breathes on somebody.

Coaches usually get the picture and take the kid out of the game because the fouls are hurting his chances of winning and hopefully because it's the right thing to do. I have never seen the officials AND the coach allow a player to be on the court this long to commit a series of fouls like this.

Agreed. My guess is they got a quote from the writer's brother-in-law who happens to be either a JV basketball ref, or an official in another sport (maybe track).

Exactly. A sage guy who liked to "let 'em play" (notice the wisdom) once said, "It's better to have 30 fouls in a half than 10 fouls and a fight."

White won the game, 38-37.

Since we covered the misuse of "flagrant" here, does anyone want to breakdown the definitions of "flagrant" in the NCAA, NBA, and FIBA rule sets?

Fighting. Although I'm not sure about that in the NBE.

Flagrant fouls cover much more than fighting in NBA and they have Flagrant 1 and 2 categories based on the severity of the act. Flagrant 2 is an automatic ejection.

NCAA just went to a similar format, this year I believe.

I do not know FIBA's classifications. I'm sure someone else can give a more educated response on all of the above.

Situation #2: "Red, you're OOB ... White ball!"
Maybe quick enough to prevent the imminent foul????