Has anyone seen the new wording on "legal guarding position" must have both feet IB

[bob jenkins]

Originally posted by ChuckElias


The big deal is to make sure that all the officials call it the same way. I don't care which way the interpretation goes, but I want to see a clarification so that everybody is calling it the same way. Just my 2 cents.

I was at a camp this weekend and Mary Strukhoff (sp?) was one of the clinicians. I asked her specifically about this point.

She stated that the rule was changed / modified precisely because some officials were calling it one way and some were calling it the other. She told the rules committee that she didn't care what the interp was, but that they needed *one* interp.

The rules committee came back with "basketball is played inbounds so a legal guarding position must be inbounds."

Thus, if the defense sets up on the line, or moves on to the line, it's a blocking foul (well, more precisely, "the defense is responsible for the contact"), even if the defense was set for 20-seconds before the contact.

Mary raised the point that this adds to the judgment required by the official. The rules committee stated that that's what officials are paid for.