Butler-Gonzaga finish

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by drofficial

My point exactly: When a defender leans and leans, and then clearly pushes with an extended arm, we now call that "incidental contact" simply because the offended player does not fall to the floor. And we wonder why we have trouble with flopping.

When we have bodies on the floor, we have to call something. But if we have an obvious push and the player does not fall down, it's incidental contact. Think of the foolishness of that philosophy.

It is incidental contact because it did not change the actions of the player. The defender was still able to defend the play with a hand in the face and air. Also I never get the "dipped his shoulder" claim anyway. A player that is running let alone dribbling is going to be leaning forward if they are moving with any speed or aggressiveness. He did not all of a sudden lean forward at the time of contact and all of a sudden create space.

I also disagree with the "we must have a foul" because bodies are on the floor. We must know how they got there, but bodies on the floor might mean someone fell or no one did anything illegal that resulted in such action. Now maybe you are having a hard time understanding that concept, but I tell people all the time that I am not calling a foul unless someone does something illegal.

Also it also is annoying when people try to stand on the rulebook as a moral way to condemn others that do not do what they do. This is a judgment issue more than anything. You might call this a foul and I might not, it does not mean someone is not applying the rules. I think this would not be a good play to call fouls and certainly not if other situations have not been made like this. And I am not sure I would love these fouls if these took place in the first minute of the game. The throw-in was a bad pass that did not give his teammate a chance to make the play and gift wrapped the ball for the defender. The play to the basket happens often and if that is a foul we would be calling fouls every play at the basket. There is going to be contact if unless the defenders allow them to just shoot.

Peace