“ Somewhere along the line, the refereeing of college basketball—maybe basketball, period—got seriously off-track compared to what occurs in the sister movement-and-goal team sports like lacrosse, soccer, and hockey. (In other words the sports that Dr. Naismith was modeling when he invented this one.) Only in basketball can contact that doesn’t visibly alter the movement of the alleged victim constitute a violation. Call it a touch foul, call it a nickel-dimer, under any name it needs to go away. If a defender has his hands up and is moving laterally, he shouldn’t be called for a foul short of sticking out his leg and tripping the player he’s guarding. And the fact that I even need to state the following shows there’s a problem: A player standing with his hands above his head by definition is not fouling anyone, even if the big star from the other team jumps into him. Not every instance of players coming into contact needs to be a violation. Let them play.
John Gasaway on college refs. I agree 100 percent. Extremely tight refereeing has hurt many a good college basketball game this year.
2 years ago
