Foul calling
 

I called a foul on Visiting teams start last night in the 2nd Q, It was her 3rd foul. The first I had called on her.

At half time my partner, the R comes to me and tells me that if I have a choice to call the foul on someone around her give it to them because people don't want to see the stars foul out. While I have heard this before, I have always given the foul to the person I see commit the foul.

He later did just what he said he was going to do, clearly the star fouled the girl going to the basket, he gives it to her team mate, it was the team mates 4th foul.
Thoughts?

I've heard it as well. The caveat I got was if they both made contact, choose the non-star. It goes hand-in-hand with if we know one kid has 4 fouls and another has 2, give the foul to the kid who has 2 unless you have no choice.

I had the "star" foul situation happen a few years ago in a BV semi-final game. Starting point guard for team A picked up two fouls in the first five minutes. Kid on team B drove to the hoop, the point guard hacked him and I called the foul. As I was going to the table one of my partners said - out loud - "did you have that on 22 or 11?" I said "22!" Then we talked about it during a timeout. I told him I knew what he wanted me to do but there was also no way I could've called the foul on 11 since that kid was a good six feet away from the play. My thought also was it was the star's responsibility not to commit a lazy foul. It also wouldn't have been fair to his teammate.

Anyone who does this is a crook, and deserves to be called one.

I'm not quick or smart or experienced enough to regularly do this. If it's truly a case of two players fouling and making the tiebreaker the non-star, sure, I guess. But anything more than that smacks of manipulation...and once you go down that road, how do you get out of it?

I am all for trying to keep the best players in the game ---- when possible. But if they are fouling you have to call it. If we don't call it, or call it on another player our credibility as a crew goes way down.

Don't make our job more complicated by adding "philosophies" into the game... our job is to call fouls and violations.

Maybe the player scores so much b/c every game he's allowed 6-7 fouls while everyone else is done after 5. :cool:

It stinks too much of game manipulation for my taste. In my view, one of our jobs is to be a good steward for the game and this does not accomplish that goal.

Does he try to keep the fouls even on the scoreboard, too?

Don't forget a little edge for the home school. ;)

I recently had a conversation with a assoc. member who was working a GV game where the star player for Team A had four fouls. During a timeout, this guy tells his partner to make sure A1(star player) deserves her fifth foul. Two minutes later A1 bumps B1 on a rebound and knocks her down to the ground. The P of the guy I am talking with whistles with a fist in air, thinks for a second and opens his hand and calls a travel. The gym erupts along with Team B's HC!(rightfully so)

Needless to say, the guy is rethinking how he worded the conversation with his P, and I suggested that the conversation doesn't need to happen at all.

My suggestion to him was to apply some preventative officiating before the incident by speaking with A1 and reminding her of her foul trouble and to be smart, but after that we have to call the plays without bias. Thoughts on that?

I have had a few partners suggest this since I started working basketball, and I hate it. What about the opposing team who might be going at the "star" player and trying to get them to foul? Why punish them in this situation? I think it's dishonest and it hurts our credibility. It's not my job to keep players in the game. I have enough other stuff to worry about before I think about keeping better players in the game.

Shouldn't that be the coach's job? "Becky, you have 4 fouls, don't do anything stupid on defense or drive recklessly to the basket."

2 years ago, I was working a non-conference girls game at a school where we'd worked at least 2 games a season for the last 5 seasons. One of the starters was the AD's daughter and the "star" player was the daughter of an official in the area.

The official's daughter was prone to foul trouble and had four fouls early in the fourth quarter. With the ball up high and me the lead (2-person) opposite the ball, the official's daughter set an illegal screen just off the periphery of my partner, who was on ball. It was a screen that freed a drive and I came and got it. The coach was not happy and neither, apparently, was the AD. The coach wondered why I was looking there (who else is going to get an off ball foul out of the vision of the on-ball official?).

I have not worked a game at that school since. My regular partner continues to get emails for games there and I've been removed from the list.

I'm just a bit annoyed at that mentality and quite a bit more amused. In the end, it doesn't matter since I only have 6 girls games left in my career and that school is well over an hour from where I live. I can live without it.

I agree.

I used to coach, for 11 years. I coached my son for 2 years. He was one of the stars but to be honest, we had an all star team. He earned 4 fouls in the 1st Q one game. I had no problem with the calls, they were all good calls. The problem was he fouled the guy over and over...

I'm not a crook, but I will do this in one specific situation.
Team is getting destroyed and the player in question is the only one who can handle the ball. There are other caveats, too, that make the application exceedingly rare.