This week I was fortunate enough to sit second row behind the basket at the Miami-UNC basketball game at the Smith Center. Many ABC’ers will make comments like why would you waste your time, they still played that game, etc. Watching games on television this year, the physical play has gotten a lot worse than in past years. The FIBA definition of a personal foul is below:
Art. 34 Personal foul
34.1 Definition
34.1.1 A personal foul is a player’s contact foul with an opponent, whether the ball is live or dead.
A player shall not hold, block, push, charge, trip or impede the progress of an
opponent by extending his hand, arm, elbow, shoulder, hip, leg, knee or foot, nor by bending his body into an 'abnormal' position (outside his cylinder), nor shall he
indulge in any rough or violent play.
Using this definition during the game I attended Tuesday evening, there should have been a foul called on every play. Basketball when I played was not a contact sport. I have heard many people call it football without the pads now. Certain things, such as over the back on rebounds, are rarely called now. The play on the inside is borderline dangerous at times. There were numerous times, by BOTH teams, where the official was looking right under the basket, guys would climb or push with two hands the guy with inside position’s back and officials would not blow the whistle. There were times where if the guy with inside position gained control of the ball, it was a play-on situation, but now it seems like anything goes or no blood, no foul. Guys swat down on the ball (which was almost an automatic call five years ago) where you can see and hear the contact and nothing is called. Several guys from Miami in the first half and Carolina in the second half were smacking guys arms going up for shots and I can hear the officials say play on as the guys were falling to the court.
Another thing that seems to be rarely called is moving screens. The rule used to be a player had to be set for one second before you could use the screener. Now it seems as if as long as you make an attempt to get there and don’t flare out your legs too far, it is legal or allowed. Numerous times you will see guys moving up top, down low and never get set on a screen and play continues.
Traveling could be the most, or definitely one of the top three rules (carrying/palming and over the back are my top 3) violated today. Several times, especially on in bound plays, guys take three steps before the ball touches the court when trying to push the tempo. Watching on television, guys take a step and the jump stop. That, if my math is correct, is three steps and travelling, yet rarely called. Guys get into traffic, especially in the lanes, and spin, twist, taking steps the entire time, and rarely called.
My theory behind why games are so loosely called is very simple: television. Television has timeouts every four minutes (first dead balls under 16, 12, 8, 4 minute marks) that last three to five minutes. That adds up to 24-40 minutes of commercials, not including halftime, which pushes it to a minimum 44-60 minutes of stoppage. Games that used to be over in two hours are now pushing 2:15 and more. There have been several games this season where the early game carried over until after the first television timeout of the second game. Should officials call a game the way the rules are written, games could possibly extend into the college football timeframe. One of the comments that seems strange is people don’t want officials to decide a game. Maybe I am getting older now, but if an act is a foul at the ten minute mark of the first half, why is it not a foul with ten seconds left in the game? Does the definition of a foul change at a certain time in a game? This mentality seems to reward the defense versus the offense.
Now that I have complained, here are my solutions to clean play up.
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- 1. Limit how many games officials can do in a week. Two of the guys working Duke-Maryland worked Miami-UNC the night before. Guys should have a day off between games to stay sharp. If a guy is working a game Tuesday night, flight Wednesday for a Wednesday night game, flight Thursday for a Thursday night game, does anyone think the official will be as sharp on Thursday as he was on Tuesday?
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- 2. Put the NBA semi-circle in the lane for charge/block calls. Help these overworked and underappreciated guys out. This would take one piece of judgment work out for the officials and make it a clear charge/block call.
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- 3. Call it tight early. Players have to adjust to the officials, not the other way. Officials ultimately decide how the game will be played. If a guy goes over the back, blow the whistle. If a guy is shooting a shot and gets hit on the arm while shooting, blow the whistle. This is one of the things that makes NCAA tournament play so interesting to me. Some smaller conference officials call it tighter than say Big East officials and it makes players from the Big East and power conferences adjust.
I Love college basketball, and think that while the game is healthy for the most part, I would love to see it get back to the way it was meant to be played. Enforcing the rules the way they are written opens things up inside the lanes and allows for more scoring. Duke-UNC was hard to watch in February. 64-54 should be the score at the 12 or 8 minute television timeout in the second half, not the final.