UrinalCake
11-19-2014, 10:33 AM
I heard Dickie V say during the game that the NCAA has gone back to the old definition of the block/charge rule, the way it was prior to last season. This means that if the defender is set before the shooter leaves the ground, it is a charge. Last year they had changed the rule to make the charge less likely - they said that the defender must be set before the shooter even begins his shooting motion, or something like that. It definitely affected Duke in a bad way, rendered Josh Hairston almost useless defensively, and contributed at least in small part to our poor defense overall as the players didn't really adjust.
So if it is true that they've gone back to the old definition (and from the looks of how yesterday's game was called, it appears they have) then that is good news for Duke and bad news for everyone that likes to hate on Duke. I'm not a huge fan of flopping and actually wish we played more straight up, stand-your-ground defense rather than trying to draw a call, but you can't deny that drawing charges is a big weapon defensively.
Also, does anyone know if they've made any changes to the hand-checking rules? That was another killer for Duke defensively. The intent was to speed up the game by allowing the offensive to have more freedom to drive the ball, but it actually had the exact opposite effect because there were so many whistles being called so there was no flow to the game.
So if it is true that they've gone back to the old definition (and from the looks of how yesterday's game was called, it appears they have) then that is good news for Duke and bad news for everyone that likes to hate on Duke. I'm not a huge fan of flopping and actually wish we played more straight up, stand-your-ground defense rather than trying to draw a call, but you can't deny that drawing charges is a big weapon defensively.
Also, does anyone know if they've made any changes to the hand-checking rules? That was another killer for Duke defensively. The intent was to speed up the game by allowing the offensive to have more freedom to drive the ball, but it actually had the exact opposite effect because there were so many whistles being called so there was no flow to the game.