CSNbbs

I watched a lot.....and I do mean a lot of basketball Thursday thru Sunday and came away with one big impression for sure.......it really isn't basketball any more.......it's drive to the basket, no matter who's in front of you, whether there is an any opening at all.......throw the ball at the basket and presume you will get a foul on your opponent even if you don't make the basket. Even at my age, I believe 100%, I could get a foul on the player guarding me every single time I was on offense........Yes, I think if I could hit my free throws, I would never, ever have to shoot the ball and I could win the game......and again, never, ever shoot the ball, and win the game. The way the rules are now, as long as the defender is moving and comes in contact with me, it's a foul on him. Today, a player drives to the basket and just slightly leans into the defender, who is MOVING(guarding him), as he goes up for a shot and it's always a foul on the defender. Basically, the player is making just a little dive towards the basket but the defender gets in his way(even though the defender is really just staying where he was, guarding the guy) but is moving with the guy with the ball. Compared to the number of drives to the basket, someone shooting and making a 10-12 ft jump shot almost doesn't exist. Basketball is real simple today, drive to the basket or shoot a 3 point shot. Sometimes it actually gets boring because some teams spend 90% of their offense trying to drive to the basket, every time down the floor......which is why it seems like they are spending more time at the foul line, shooting free throws. I don't know how many times(1000's in the 4 days) a player got the ball at the foul line,is not guarded closely at all and instead of shooting a real easy jump shot(or basically a free throw) he passes it back to someone to drive to the basket. Any way that is my analysis of basketball today!!!

I'm glad you brought this up. A friend of mine and I were just discussing this very thing. We both agreed that over the course of this year, there'd been a lot of inconsistencies on calling "blocks/charges" and that was due to the way the refs were told to call the game this year compared to the last several.

Here was my solution. If a defender is mostly stationary and the offensive player is headed to the basket with ot wo the ball, it should be up to the defensive guy to keep that "cutter" between his feet and somewhat squared. If that is the case, then that becomes a charge. If the offensive guy is outside that "cone" then it becomes a block and the defender has fouled. A charge is when the offensive guy has initiated contact by running through the defender cylinder since the legs of the defender are correctly placed so that the cutter is running over him. But this year the rule just seemed to place the blame on the defender rather than the position of the guilty party.

The thing I think should be done is to keep judgement as much as possible out of the refs mind and if the fans understand the rule and the position, then there'd be less criticism.

But I tend to blame the Big 10 for a lot of this because they have - over the years - called a much rougher game than most of the other conferences. Thanks Bobby Knight!

When you have 40-50 fouls in a game, that is one a minute or more.....that takes away from the game dramatically. If the player driving continues on in the same line and the defender moves into him it's a foul.....but if the offensive player makes any move towards the basket, going into the moving defender then it should be an offensive foul.......that would put a stop to this incessant driving when there is no where to go but through a moving defender.