56 Fouls 32 Minutes

[VaTerp]

The second game of my HS double header last night had 56 fouls in 32 minutes. I believe that individually I had 7 fouls the entire game that weren't double whistles and at most another 7 fouls where I went to the table on fouls where one of my partners also had whistles. So my partners had least 42 fouls between them. There was absolutely no flow and the only thing that saved it from being one of the least enjoyable games I've ever officiated was that it was a competitive game and ended with a team hitting a tie-breaking 3 pointer with just over a second left. But I left the court feeling dirty.

In my opinion at least 15 whistles should have been passed on as there was no advantage gained with minimal or even phantom contact. After 30 fouls in the first half I talked in the locker room about advantage/disadvantage, letting kids play through minimal contact that had no impact on RSBQ, letting plays finish, etc.

That seemed to work for about 90 seconds then it was back to the same stuff. One of my partners in particular kept repeating that "two hands are automatic" but failed to understand this applies to ball handlers. And what was really unfortunate IMO was that there were several fouls called as ball handlers were passing the ball to open teamates for jump shots and lay ups. They were actually penalizing the offense on many of these calls by calling minimal contact that did not place anyone at a disadvantage.

So my point other than ranting is to ask if others are seeing some of this in your games? It seems to me that the new hand checking rules/enforcement in NCAAM along with the 3rd point of emphasis is this year's NFHS rules book is leading to some HS officials losing sight of advantage/disadvantage and calling almost any and all contact a foul then thinking they are supported by rules and points of emphasis.