New rules on contact / hand-checking

[Rich]

We had one play where the player committed a foul (by the standards of the new rule) just after the ball handler had beat him and had a clear path to the basket.

It was a multiple touch on the ball handler by the defender, BTW.

I still think this is one where you want to have a slow whistle. The NFHS may not agree, however. Hopefully all our states will give us guidance.

[Nevadaref]

Originally Posted by Rich

We had one play where the player committed a foul (by the standards of the new rule) just after the ball handler had beat him and had a clear path to the basket.

It was a multiple touch on the ball handler by the defender, BTW.

I still think this is one where you want to have a slow whistle. The NFHS may not agree, however. Hopefully all our states will give us guidance.

I believe that a foul committed under those circumstances qualifies as an intentional personal foul. "Negates an opponent's obvious advantageous position ..."

[OrStBballRef]

Originally Posted by OrStBballRef

I've only done a few summer league games this year (all on the women's side) and so far I've actually seeing it be enforced fairly well not perfectly well, but pretty good so far.

That being said the girls side I have done is in several high caliber tournaments over here where they are skilled enough not to hand check up top.

Most of my calls with this new rule have been in the post with the arm bar or two hands on etc...one game we probably called 4-5 on one teams post defenders for trying to guard like this. Kids got the message and adjusted coaches didn't complain at all because we were consistent early and often.

I have to say I do like the new rule about the handchecks as I think it will clean up the game. That being said I could easily see a lot of the freshman and JV games take a lot longer now because those kids may not be as fast as to react to the changes as the varsity players.

So I posted this yesterday before I had a set of 3 games in one of the tournaments around here. 2nd game of the 3 set...well lets just say we took these new rules out for a spin and put them through the ringers. Much more so than in the previous 15-20 summer league games I had worked.

Both teams were all over the place with the hands. Hand checks up top, two hands on, arm bars etc..double bonus both halves, but we were consistent and didn't get much complaints about the calls on the new rules.

That being said what I did hear was some complaints about some of the contact in the post on the shot. Ie dribbler goes up for a shot and gets a little bump, which didn't affect RSBQ and we don't call a foul. Coaches 'logic' being if we are calling the 'touch' stuff up top and in the post that should be called to. Of course the coach didn't understand the fouls we were passing on were more advantage/disadvantage/RSBQ type of fouls that we still use judgment on, but I didn't want to engage him in that conversation.

Later in the game the team that had more fouls due to the new rules literally was just throwing arms back on anything close. They got the message after getting into foul trouble.

Every official I've worked with the last 2 weekends like the changes and all agreed it makes it much easier to call and less open to interpretation like it has been in the past.