Old Rules Question

[Lotto]

Originally posted by Jurassic Referee

OK,you're corrected.You're calling it completely wrong.There is NO requirement for a defensive player to be "set" or "square",as per your description above.What you are looking for is to make sure that the defender actually establishes a legal guarding position before the contact.

I don't think Sam is completely wrong. According to NCAA 4-33.6:

To establish initial legal guarding position on the player with the ball:
a. The guard shall have both feet touching the playing court....
b. The guard's torso shall face the opponent.

There's a little more there, but to establish legal guarding position on a player with the ball, at some point you must be both "set" and "square," to use Sam's terms. (Well, technically the feet don't have to 100% face the offensive player...)

To establish legal guarding position on a player without the ball, there is no requirement to be "set" and/or "square."

By the way, I don't see anything in this part of the NCAA rules about moving backwards or obliquely. The statement in 4-33.4 is: "The guard may maintain guarding position in the path of the dribbler, provided that the guard does not charge into the dribbler nor otherwise cause contact as in Rule 10-19.2 and 10-19.3."