Uncalled Cheap Shots

[Rich]

Originally Posted by VaTerp

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.

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.