What's the correct call
 

Watching my son's Varsity game last night .... Our player has the ball just above the key and the defensive player is attempting to tie up the ball. Our player pivots and swings his arms/elbows through unbelivably fast, but does not create contact. The official called a technical foul on him .

My question(s) are:

1. I believe the correct call would be a violation due to excessive swinging of the elbows (if the official believed that occurred) from my vantage point it wasn't b/c he swung through as he was pivoting. Am I correct ?

2) What is the call if he had made contact with the defensive player ?

3) My real concern was for the defensive player, if he had been hit with this motion it really would have caused injury , is there anything we as officials can do ?

Thanks

1. Correct

2. Player control unless the official believed it to be INT or Flagrant.

3. Officials blow the whistle AFTER illegal contact occurs.

If he thought the player was excessively swinging his elbows (without contact), then it would be a violation rather than a T

Player control foul, intentional foul, or flagrant foul though realistically, you'd probably gonna have at the least an intentional foul for excessive contact.

If it's an isolated instance, then no...if you call it the first time it happens, it hopefully curtails the chances of it happening again.

Sounds like it should have been a violation, because no contact was made. Calling a T is a previous ruling.

If illegal contact was made, I see a PC foul. If I suspected anything else, INT and flagrant are possible.

Thanks for the reply,

I called another official this morning and explained it to him and asked what he thought. He responded that if the elbow was above the shoulder then he would call an intentional. I told him that it didn't matter the location but he disagreed. So I told him I was going to come here .

Thanks again

Not a problem, an elbow above the shoulder is the NCAA ruling.

That's (sort of) the NCAA rule.

Note that the violation is for swinging the elbows faster than the torso. If it's an entire pivot (and the elbows stay in the same relative spot to the torso), then it's no violation, and can only be a foul (if contact is made).

I Went To A Fight And A Basketball Game Broke Out ...
 

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?

I was sitting behind our bench (unbelievably small gym) and heard our coach ask why it was a technical .. the response was " it was flagrant swinging of his elbow coach ".

Well then someone's getting ejected (sorry, disqualified) in your scenario. No one was ejected in the OP's play.

What is the violation? "Excessive swinging of the arms"? So this would be just like a traveling violation?

Correct ... if no contact was made.

Excessive swinging of the elbows...ball is awarded to the offended team at the OOB spot closest to where the violation occurred. If this occurs, while a try is in flight, by the team who shot the ball, the ball becomes dead and no basket can be scored.

If it was flagrant (e.g., an attempt to strike the opponent), then the player should have been disqualified.

The official in your play is using old rules and incorrect terminology.

Well, At Least I Gave It A Shot ...
 

Good point AllPurposeGamer.