This Is Idiotic
After watching just how great a job the NBA officials have been doing this post-season, the NCAA bureaucrats are on the verge of installing the League’s no-charge zone underneath the basket, but doing so without actually having the semi-circle drawn on the floor. If that call wasn’t tough enough already, college refs would have to magically eye whether the player taking the charge was inside or outside of the imaginary circle. Best of all, the geniuses behind this idea believe that it’s somehow going to curtail flopping.
College referees will be forced to eyeball the arc, decide whether the helper defender was inside that radius and then, if necessary, figure out whether his feet were set in the first place. All in about a half a second. Which will cure nothing, because, as Robbi Pickeral points out, the “theater” of flopping will continue, as players simply will dare referees to make two correct calls instead of just one.
Why not just get this rule right and draw the damn semi-circle on the court? Because of the handcuff-ing bureaucracy of the NCAA, it would take at least four years to get the line on the court. If that’s the case, then they should just tape the line on the court.
Though this rule might help to cut down on the physicality underneath the rim – it could inspire another, even uglier, side of college basketball to become more prevalent: technical fouls. We’ve seen T’s become an enormous source of frustration for players, coaches and fans in the NBA playoffs. Though that’s more because of the NBA refs’ quick whistles than the no-charge zone, it’s still instructive to see just how much a game can change when a team is assessed an undeserving technical foul. It allows emotion to decide final scores. In college hoops, where one regular season loss can mean the difference between playing in the Dance and going on spring break, that’s a pretty serious risk.
If it’s a big enough issue to ask refs to eye the magical circle, the NCAA committee should figure out how to change their rules and just paint the line.
Source: Deadspin
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June 2nd, 2009 at 8:35 am
Kermit the Washington says:
I almost believe this might work. It’s almost like they’re saying “don’t bother trying to take the charge down there, cause it’s a big gamble”. I’m pretty sure that WOULD curtail flopping, in a sense, no?
But DEFINITELY, they should just draw the line and be done with it. You know they’re going to be forced to, eventually. Might as well just do it from the start.
June 2nd, 2009 at 10:00 am
shake&bake says:
They pretty much enforce this rule in college without having the circle there anyways. There are a lot of charges that are called blocks because the ref says that the defender is too far under the basket.
June 2nd, 2009 at 10:00 am
dk says:
What does Lebron have to do with this?
June 2nd, 2009 at 11:04 am
QQ says:
@ 3:
I think it is in Dime’s company policy to link every article ever to a Lebron article.
June 2nd, 2009 at 11:10 am
Sho-Nuff says:
Paulus should be ashamed. He flopped and didn’t get the call.
Danny Green, one of my favorite UNC players ever. I hope he gets a shot to stick in the league.
June 2nd, 2009 at 3:44 pm
Chaos says:
this rule is kinda ludicrous….
but the pic is classic