Perhaps you could make such an argument if the RA rule considered what a player was trying to do....but it doesn't. It only says a secondary defender can't have LGP while in the RA and any block/charge contact will be a block.

It was written with the player trying to draw the charge in mind, but they didn't qualify its use with what the player does.

This is a great example of a "clean up top" block. I see the body contact as incidental and I think that putting a whistle on this would be penalizing a great athletic play.

Yes, the shooter came forward, but the important piece of this equation is that the defender also lunged forward, hence the blocking foul. I could see your point if the defender remained in his "phone booth," but that wasn't even close.

I'm not sure what you're watching, but this play is a great example of sucking on a whistle and ignoring some subsequent contact down low because of the great defensive play up top.

This is the play where some officials will call a foul and sell hard "he got him down low", "body". Don't be one of those officials.

The only thing that made me look twice was whether or not the blockers arm followed through and hit the shooter on the head. If that happened, I'd probably consider calling a foul, depending on how responsible I think the blocker is for that contact.

Agreed. The big question - which we always ask ourselves - is: did the contact put anyone at a disadvantage? If anything it just "looks bad" because the defender swung his arm down to make the block.

I'm with Rich in terms of a hit to the head. That's the only way on this play I'd consider putting a whistle on it

Great defense on the blocked shot!


But there was some contact after the shot that may have affected the safe landing that A1 is entitled to.

• If that contact was too severe for you, then call a foul.
• If you believe that A1 deserved a better landing, then call a foul.

B5's right arm on the follow-through struck A1's head/neck area which seemed to knock him off of his safe landing. There was no way A1 was going to land as he did if there was no contact from B5.

I can definitely see calling this a foul in JV. Varsity: perhaps it's 50-50, likely less. I would not expect a call in the NCAA, and there wasn't.

Me personally, I dislike it when there is contact to a player's head. It's just a pet peeve of mine, and I tend to protect shooters more when they are hit in the head.

this is pretty simple....this is incidental contact at the D1 level (you may deem it "contact that warrants a foul" at a different level).


imho, the two best plays in basketball are the dunk and the blocked shot - one should not blow the whistle on incidental contact during such plays.

Looks like a 80/20 "play on" blocked shot to me. Big man got all ball 1st, then some body & we know what happens when a little man who just threw up a floater meets the big man in the air. Tough to reward the offense on that play...

I thought the RA was all about 2ndary defenders taking charges?? Defenders can still rise in an attempt to block a shot in the RA, no?

If they couldn't, then aren't you are changing a fundamental of basketball: the principle of verticality?

My point exactly.

Did this go OT, or did the KU player make the 2nd home run shot? Can't tell from the video.

Very well. Let's say there was no blocked shot on this play, only the body contact. What would you have then?

Shot was gone, defender was straight up, two reasons not to make a call.

The principal of verticality, of course.