NBA’s hand-check rule would help college basketball

[devildeac]

Wasn't sure whether to start a new thread with this or include it in the post-game thread from last night. Interesting references in this article from the Raleigh News and Observer today, especially after defense we faced yesterday.

http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/03/30/2790981/rick-bonnell-nbas-hand-check-rule.html#storylink=misearch

My favorite quote:

"That’s where the college game needs to consider some form of imitation, because there is a thuggish quality to college defense that isn’t visually appealing.

Take Louisville and Marquette, for example. Those teams advanced deep into the NCAA tournament because their coaches are smart enough to test the limits of what the rules allow: Poke, clutch and hip-check the man you’re guarding to disrupt offensive flow.

Louisville coach Rick Pitino used to call this his “Mother-in-Law Defense,” as in constant pressure and harassment. Not politically correct, but a great description of the intent.

I remember watching the Davidson-Marquette second-round game and thinking the subtext of the Golden Eagles’ approach is “commit 30 fouls and hope only 15 are called.”

[RaiderDevil]

This would effectively ruin Shaka Smart's career.

[CDu]

The hand check rule would help some, but a bigger step would be actually calling fouls when they are committed. We're practically playing football at this point.

[WiJoe]

To me, the Big East and Big Ten promotes physical play (Izzo and his football pads practices). A lot of the games in those conferences are unwatchable. As Devildeac wrote "I remember watching the Davidson-Marquette second-round game and thinking the subtext of the Golden Eagles’ approach is “commit 30 fouls and hope only 15 are called.” A Marquette coach in the 1990s used to say Cincinnati fouled multiple times on each possession, and the majority were not called. It's funny to hear Izzo complain about calls. His teams play the same way those Cincinnati teams played. As for Marquette, it appears the fouls are not solely on the court.

http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/120207189.html

http://fox6now.com/2012/04/09/police-report-released-after-mu-basketball-incident-at-downtown-club/

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-10-28/sports/ct-met-marquette-sex-cases-20111028_1_athletes-campus-security-sexual-assault-policies

The other thing about officiating that bothers the h*ll out of me are the increasing instances in which a foul appears to be committed, but the whistle doesn't seem to blow unless the shot doesn't go in. It seems impossible that this happens, but it sure seems that way to me.

[Greg_Newton]

The hand check rule would help some, but a bigger step would be actually calling fouls when they are committed. We're practically playing football at this point.

Absolutely agree. Some B1G/Big East are downright unwatchable.

It's not the reaching that you see from Louisville, VCU, etc. that bothers me as much as the body contact. It's not quite as blatant, but it just totally changes the game.

[Spret42]

At the risk of putting my hand out there to get bit. I think this has been a slowly developing problem in which every major coach, including the greats of the ACC, Coach K, the Williams' etc, has had a hand. The ACC isn't completely innocent regarding the way that man to man defense has been cranked up in the last 20 or so years to include a near constant use of the hands to harass ball handlers, using the lower body check to knock around guys who are moving without the ball, and the idea that throwing your chest into a guy is ok as long as your don't hack him. All of these things are fouls.

I am not saying that the Big East and Big 10 aren't worse than the ACC with regard to physical play, or that Izzo's "War Drill" isn't an abomination (can you imagine John Wooden wasting time in practice running a drill where his guys beat on each other for rebounds rather than drills where they run hard and move the ball while learning to play with each other so that a fast break becomes second nature) but I think this is an across the board problem in college basketball. And in my opinion it starts with the coaches.

Coaches are constantly working refs, over coaching every possession etc. College basketball is a coaches game for sure. This is in my mind is the great paradox because basketball is really a players game. The greatest thing I ever heard Coach K say was in an interview after thoroughly dismantling State in the ACC tournament, "I really enjoyed watching my team play today." In other words his team was so well drilled that all he had to do was sit back and watch them play the game.

I was talking to my father recently about old great coaches, specifically Wooden and mentioned the quote. He reflected on it and thought it was something Wooden would have said.

Anyway, I love this discussion because I love basketball and right now the college version doesn't look or feel right. I am not saying I want defense to disappear and the games to be a universal homage to Paul Westhead, but there needs to be more fouls called across the board. Forcing players to get their hands down in the backcourt and play defense with their feet while allowing players off the ball move freely to spots without having to worry about being hip checked offline would be a great start.

[Matches]

It's a tough line to walk because you don't want games called so closely that they become FT-shooting parades. Those games are as unwatchable as the wrestling matches.

But one hopes that, if physical play was called more tightly, the players and coaches would adjust and things would open up.

Clearly the college game needs a refresh though. It looks right now a lot like late-90's NBA, which was terrible to watch. The good news is that the NBA has shown us that the problem is fixable.

[superdave]

The hand check rule would help some, but a bigger step would be actually calling fouls when they are committed. We're practically playing football at this point.

Jay Bilas referred to college ball as "organized fouling." (http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/feb/15/college-basketball-is-brutal-to-watch-right-now/)

[Spret42]

This would effectively ruin Shaka Smart's career.

This is another problem in college basketball. The mid-majors , including everyone's favorite, Butler and Mr. Brad Stevens, are being allowed to get away with far to much defensively when they come up against the bigger more athletic schools. Butler played some UGLY physical basketball in those back to back runs to the Final Four. I think Stevens is a good coach, as is Smart. Both of them realize that with undersized guys they have to push the envelope with defense and it is contributing to the ugliness of college basketball.

Often times mid-majors are allowed to get away with way to much physical defensive play. It sometimes feels the refs know they are undersized, the crowd is thoroughly behind the "little guy" and they allow the smaller schools too much leeway to play defense however they want without having to worry about being called for fouls etc. It is a human problem for sure but it is one that has seeped into college basketball .

[TruBlu]

It's a tough line to walk because you don't want games called so closely that they become FT-shooting parades. Those games are as unwatchable as the wrestling matches.

But one hopes that, if physical play was called more tightly, the players and coaches would adjust and things would open up.

Clearly the college game needs a refresh though. It looks right now a lot like late-90's NBA, which was terrible to watch. The good news is that the NBA has shown us that the problem is fixable.

As I mentioned in another thread, the way to clean this up is for the NCAA to announce during the off-season that the game is going to be tightened up the next season . . . that hand-checking, chest bumping, grabbing, etc. will be called a foul the following season, and then to follow through and oversee all refs in all conferences to insure games are called tighter.

This would give coaches and players time to adjust their style of play in the off-season and preseason. If a team or coach doesn't get the message, they will end games with their walk-ons on the floor or playing 3 on 5, and will come around very quickly.

If this, in some opinions, would give too much advantage to the offense, in the same announcement, they might also decide to maybe, just maybe, begin to call traveling and palming. (I think those are still rules, but you sometimes just can't tell by watching a game.)

[MChambers]

I certainly endorse the idea of calling hand checking and tightening up the officiating generally. They should also call moving screens. I was amazed at how many moving screens I saw in the tournament that were not called.

[devildeac]

And for a semi-related article (NOT named Ojeleye;)), please be sure to read the article on the Home Page today about the PAC-12 officials recent controversy.