Rules committee disappointed in blocks and charges
Apparently, the NCAA rules committee is no different than you and I when it comes to watching officiating in college basketball, specifically in the paint. Yesterday, in an official release from the No Consistency At All organization, the committee expressed its frustration in the way blocking and charging fouls were called last college basketball season. It is a complaint we voiced over and over and over and over again after watching countless questionable charges called on Marquis Teague and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist.
To help address the issue, the committee approved guidelines that are supposed to help the officials, I guess.
— Before the offensive player (with the ball) becomes airborne, the defender must have two feet on the floor, be facing the opponent and be stationary to draw a charge. Otherwise it should be a blocking foul.
— Secondary defenders (help defenders) moving forward or to the side are also in violation, and these should be blocking fouls.
— Contact that is “through the chest” is not de facto proof of a charge. The rule in its entirety must be considered before determining a foul.
— In some cases, it appears that a defender is being rewarded solely for being outside the arc, without considering the other aspects of the rules.
The rules committee plans to continue to work over the next year to improve the consistency of calls made around the charge circle. The circle made its college basketball debut in the 2011-12 season and it was clear that it was an advantage for the defense, despite being implemented for the offensive player. Officials were looking to the defender’s feet, instead of the play, and then rewarding them with a charge call if they were outside of the circle on collisions during drives to the basket.
The committee is looking to give the benefit of the doubt back to the offensive player on 50/50 plays and to prevent defenders from sliding into position underneath an already airborne player.
We’ll let them slide with the poor officiating last year, considering the circle was new and everyone was just adapting to its influence on the game. But there is no excuse next season. I don’t want to see an Alex Poythress poster going the other way because Chane Behanan had his heels outside the circle.
Get it right, stripes.
33 Comments for Rules committee disappointed in blocks and charges
We got hosed on this call so many times last year. Glad they’re addressing it.
exactly. they looked at the defender’s feet, not the overall situation.
The first line of the NCAA’s statement alone would have nullfied two-thirds of all the fouls MKG got called for last year. If the defenders had to have two feet planted, MKG would have never had more than 2 fouls in any game of his college career.
this happened to mkg the mostnjust look at the defenders feet
Good that it is being addressed. These calls were getting botched for all teams where officials focused more on where the defenders feet were outide/inside the arc rather than the timing of WHEN. It’s so much harder to set up for a charge before a guy like MKG goes airborne considering he might glide in the air 6-8 feet making it easy to slide in late.
Copy and Paste would have saved you even more time Drew.
The NCAA rules committee must’ve seen a lot of UK games last season because they aren’t happy with the way blocks and charges have been called. To straighten things out, the committee approved guidelines to help better administer these rules:
— Before the offensive player (with the ball) becomes airborne, the defender must have two feet on the floor, be facing the opponent and be stationary to draw a charge. Otherwise it should be a blocking foul.
— Secondary defenders (help defenders) moving forward or to the side are also in violation, and these should be blocking fouls.
— Contact that is “through the chest” is not de facto proof of a charge. The rule in its entirety must be considered before determining a foul.
— In some cases, it appears that a defender is being rewarded solely for being outside the arc, without considering the other aspects of the rules.
(via NCAA.org)
Good knew all them calls against us was bull
Wasn’t there a time that officials could call a foul on a flop?
At least 60% of the charge calls on MKG were absolutely atrocious. To further investigate the rule and how it should be applied in the future, the rules committee will be reviewing UK games non-stop.
8) I think that was the NBA. I seem to remember a couple years ago they were talking about making a flop a technical foul. Never saw it called though.
About frickin time they looked at this. We have been the #1 victim of horrible charge calls the last 3 years. My goodness, poor MKG couldn’t go anywhere near the basket without someone falling down and they called it a charge every single time, pathetic. Just because the other team couldn’t stop him doesn’t make it the officials place to try to stop him.
Funny, this is what most of us thought a charge was the whole time until some officials decided differently this past season. It was ALWAYS my understanding that “the defender must have two feet on the floor, be facing the opponent and be stationary to draw a charge” but if I remember correctly, someone even told Calipari that this was NOT the case during this season.
Why do the officials get a break for last season? How hard is it to officiate with a new rule? Everyone but the officials seemed to realize that having your feet outside of the arc didn’t mean an automatic charge. If they are that stupid, they shouldn’t get a second chance.
13) If they didn’t give them a second chance and got rid of them because they are STUPID then who would officiate the games. just sayin…
I don’t understand those stated rules. Everybody knows you have to be able to fall down or its not a charge. It can’t be just any fall, it takes practice. Its been that way for 50 years, but no one can show me the rule that says you have to fall down.
Wish they would’ve fixed it last year… then we could have shot 50+ FT’s vs the loosiers and beat that A#$ by alot more!!!!!!!!!!
Listen up, guys. By rule, you didn’t have to be stationary to draw a charge. Most of us, including some of us here today, thought you had to be stationary, with both feet on the ground at the point of contact, but that was never the rule. As a result, an awful lot of our complaints last year were simply the result of our ignorance.
When Cal complained that defenders were undercutting his players and getting charge calls, some head official issued a statement explaining the rule: unless the offensive player is airborne, defenders don’t have to have their feet set, they can move laterally (or backwards). But none of us paid attention. We just kept on complaining, as though we had read the rule and the interpretations and knew what we were talking about. We didn’t, in part because too many color commentators didn’t understand the rule either.
These guidelines are now in keeping with what most of us believe the rule should have been all along. That’s a good thing. The refs will still make questionable calls, they’ll still get calls wrong, but the complaints should go down because now we’ll be on the same page.
Where does the rule committee stand in regards to the blarge?
# 17 is right
This tarnished a great season. They were mis-calling the charge against every team all year long. I’m glad they are doing something about it.
17) Yes we know that, but you still can’t jump in front of a player as they are going towards the basket. The “moving” charge happens when the defender is guarding the ball handler and the ball handler tries to drive through the defender. That was rare last year.
Indiana fans are going to hate to hear this news.
17 – Thanks for clarifying that to draw a charge, a defender must be stationary *only* if the offensive player is airborne. This typically happens around the basket. At the perimeter, a charge is called differently. The defender is allowed to be moving while drawing a charge b/c the offensive player is not airborne. I think KY fans are the most knowledgable fanbase, but not everyone knows this aspect of the rule.
Why not go to a system like the NFL where coaches have the ability to challenge a call, but with penalties if they are not right? The charging call should definitely be reviewable by replay. It’s too complicated to get it right at full speed.
No. 24 — do you really want to see more of the officials at the scorer’s table reviewing plays? No thanks.
MKG would’ve lead team in scoring if that rule was in effect last year and UK would’ve averaged 90 points a game! Better late than never. The charge/block circle didn’t work.
This still doesn’t change the fact that we have KENTUCKY written across our chest. It is great to adress that they were making this call completely wrong but until refs become unbiased to the fact that we are Kentucky, then we will still receive the same calls.
As long as this only applies to defenders who are intentionally trying to take a charge I like it. I’m assuming charges where a defender is moving his feet in good defensive position and the offensive player creates the contacts and jumps into him can still be called offensive fouls? That is never called enough IMO.
Sorry, didn’t read all the comments that addressed my above comment. Thanks for the clarification.
17 – you are correct that the defender does not necessarily have to be stationary to draw a charge. What is missed, however, in many of the poor calls this year was that not only was the defender moving, but they never established legal guarding position in the first place, which they are supposed to do. Beyond that, in the rulebook it also states that “when a dribbler passes an opponent sufficiently to have head and shoulders beyond the front of the opponent’s torso, the greater responsibility for subsequent contact shall be that of the opponent” Again there were examples from this year where that was not taken into account and a charge was called.
There are other statements in the rulebook which put the onus primarily on the defender, for better or worse.
It seems that many of those who try to defend these terrible calls want to fixate on the technicalities where it’s possible for the defender to draw a charge while moving, yet ignore everything else. To me it’s just an excuse to try to rationalize what are at the end of the day are a rash of poor calls by the officials.
I don’t like to complain when it comes to officials because it sounds like we are making excuses, however, this year is the worse I have ever seen on the block/charge against us. It wasn’t even close. The charge always went against us and the block always went against us. I would love to know the final numbers and how we finished compared to other teams.
I think they should also look at the defensive player’s posture. If he is leaning backward before the contact, he should not get the call either. I’m sick of the non-contact charge. How about we give him a tech for trying to fake a foul?
Glad it’s being ‘adressed’ but this is quite interesting. The first hashmark in the gray box about an airborne player & a defender with set feet has been what I considered to be the only way a charge could be called, as explained to me in my Jr. Pro days and throughout my entire youth basketball career! WTF changed? Nothing, frickin’ suck ass refs really sucked ths past season, espically during the dance. UK got ripped on this more times than I can count, as did the whole nation. I have to stop talking now, my blood pressure is going up again just thinking about this…