What's the correct call

[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

It's a stretch, but can't a hard swinging, but no contact, elbow be construed as a "punch that misses" in a fight that might break out, thus the noncontact technical foul? Again, it's a stretch, but I'm trying to figure out why there was a technical foul in this live ball, noncontact, situation. Or, maybe there were some "bad" words exchanged between the players, like some kind of taunt?

I'm not sure, but wasn't the noncontact excessive elbow swing a technical foul (NFHS) several years ago? Hasn't this changed back and forth a few times (violation, technical foul, violation)? Now, where are my house keys?

Billy:

You are correct that it could be judged a non-contact FTF. I had such a call in the 1994 AAU Girls' 18U Nationals in Cleveland, Ohio. A1 got the ball in the high post with her back to the basket and B1 defender her from behind. A1 pivots a little bit to her left (enough to see where B1 was) and then swung her left elbow directly for B1's head. B1 saw the elbow coming and pulled back just in time to avoid being slammed in the face with A1's elbow. If A1's elbow had made contact with B1's face, B1 would have gone down for the count.

A1's coach didn't like the call, the two Army assistant coaches who were there scouting A1 didn't like the call, and the Official Scorer (who was on the Colgate Univ. men's team at the time) didn't like the call. The smart aleck from Colgate went so far as to tell me that if I disqualified A1 he wouldn't record it in the book. The Site Manager instantly became the new Official Scorer.

MTD, Sr.