By Michael Bradley
Michael Bradley is a freelance writer based in Philadelphia. He is a frequent contributor to Coaching Management as well as several other sport publications.
Coaching Management, 9.2, March 2001, http://www.momentummedia.com/articles/cm/cm0902/roughriders.htm
It’s a fact of life. In college basketball, there’s always going to be some booing. Okay, a lot of booing. Players and coaches learn to deal with it. Officials brace for it. Fans love to do it.
Fans in Philadelphia are no exception. They’ll boo the opposition. They’ll boo the refs. They’ll even boo their heroes when they feel the effort isn’t there.
But in early January, some fans in Philadelphia entered uncharted territory. Midway through the second half of St. Joseph’s University’s 75-60 win over visiting Duquesne, Hawks fans began booing the officials for calling fouls on the visiting team. It didn’t matter to them that St. Joe’s was being sent to the line for a chance to widen its lead. The game was dragging on.
While the assembled masses chose to vent their frustration at the striped shirts, they should have sent a letter to the Indianapolis offices of the NCAA, which issued a “call-’em-all” edict before the season. Upset that men’s college basketball has become too rough, the NCAA’s Division I Men’s Basketball Committee established a singular “point of emphasis” for the 2000-01 season: eliminate rough play. The aim of the edict is to make play flow more and remove some of the physical ugliness that has made games the province of the big and strong, rather than the quick and athletic.
The impetus for the move was the 2000 Division I men’s semifinal between Michigan State and Wisconsin. The brutal defensive struggle yielded a 53-41 final score, hardly the type of result the NCAA wanted on its most illustrious stage. When some prominent head coaches, such as the University of Kansas’ Roy Williams, spoke up during the offseason, the committee took action.
“The mandate from the rules committee was to reduce rough play all over the court,” says Hank Nichols, NCAA National Coordinator of Men’s Basketball Officiating. “Basically we’re focusing on five areas: players moving without the ball, cutters moving through the lane, post play with and without the ball, handchecking, and illegal screening. This is what we’re telling officials to watch, and coaches to avoid, because this is where the rough play is emanating from—grabbing, holding, and picking guys off with hips and arms on screens.”
The response from coaches has been mixed. Some like the hands-off play. “The game has been cleaned up some,” Rutgers University Head Coach Kevin Bannon says. “The only thing the players and coaches are looking for is that the referees define things clearly and be consistent. So far, they’ve done a pretty good job.”
Others, tired of games featuring 70 or 80 free throws, have not been so keen on the more tightly called contests. “The officiating is absolutely the worst,” says Temple University Head Coach John Chaney. “Everybody’s getting hurt by the new rule. It used to be, ‘no harm, no foul.’ Now, a kid makes a move, and the officials make a call.”
Despite differing opinions, the fact remains that referees aren’t relenting. The NCAA has continued to put out memos reminding officials to be vigilant, and coaches have to be aware of the ramifications—that it’s more likely your athletes are going to be called for manhandling the opposition. As a result, some coaches have adapted their practices to deprogram their players’ foul habits.
Arms Up
Bannon is one coach taking the new emphasis seriously. In practice, he and his staff have devised some drills specifically to teach players how to defend without using their hands in an unnecessary manner. Anybody who wanders into a Scarlet Knights practice might be surprised to see the methods the coaches have devised, but the intentions are specific to the new point of emphasis.
Bannon has his players hold their arms up with five or 10-pound weights in their hands. Then, they have to play defense. The weights make it is impossible for them to lay their hands on offensive players, so the Scarlet Knights have to shuffle their feet.
A second drill is used to foster a new perspective on post defense. Players are asked to hold a broom behind their necks with both hands, and then they must try to keep an opponent from establishing good position down low and doing anything productive with the basketball. By forcing them to hold their hands high, the Rutgers staff is teaching them that post defense is about footwork, staying strong in one spot, and having one’s hands in a position to knock away passes or shots—not simply putting hands on rivals’ hips or jamming a forearm into their lower backs to move them off the spot.
St. Joseph’s, too, has made efforts to adapt to the new point of emphasis. “Early on, we absolutely paid a lot of attention to it,” says Head Coach Phil Martelli. “We taught zone earlier than ever before because we thought we would be in foul trouble all the time if we didn’t. And we’ve been particularly keen on keeping our hands off people.”
Although the emphasis is being applied less stringently at Divisions II and III, those coaches are alerting their players to possible problems as well. Mike Leeder, Head Coach at Division II Longwood College in Virginia, for instance, has been using more time during practices to point out areas where contact needs to be reined in. For example, when the Lancers run three-on-three or four-on-four drills, the coaches make sure to highlight possible violations—to better prepare the players for what might come.
“We tell them that the refs may or may not call a foul,” Leeder says, “but we stress that they shouldn’t put themselves in a position to let them call it.”
Official Considerations
While a lot of gym time has been dedicated to refining how players defend down low, some coaches have also discovered that simply making the players more conscious of what the officials are thinking can help silence the whistles. For example, Rutgers’ preparation for the new officiating techniques included teaching players to communicate better with the refs.
Center Rashod Kent, a big man with deceptively quick feet, has been hampered throughout his career by foul trouble, in part because the 6’6” junior has been asked to defend much bigger players due to the Knights’ lack of a true pivot. But in addition to running through the various drills Bannon and his staff devised, Kent was also taught to take a more diplomatic approach with the officials during games.
Throughout the early part of the season, the Knights’ coaches and Kent worked on his dialogue with the referees. Before each game, Kent politely asked the officials how they would be calling the game. Just what was a foul? When would things be tolerated, and when would they be called?
Because the point of emphasis was new, the officials were more than willing to offer counseling. And, when they saw Kent trying to work within the guidelines, they were perhaps a little more forgiving during games. The result was more playing time for the big man—a vital benefit for a Rutgers team that has precious little frontcourt depth.
“I don’t have a problem teaching the new emphasis, if I know that’s the way it’s going to be called every game,” Bannon says.
Getting your players to change habits is a difficult proposition—especially if you’ve previously encouraged those habits in order to remain competitive in a physical environment. But according to Martelli, taking time with players after games to review what refs called, and talking about what officials are going to be watching for, can also help players make more progress in practice. This helps them to work toward specific goals rather than trying to adjust for every possible eventuality.
“Hands-on defense has been the hardest to fight,” says Martelli, “because a player’s first reaction when an opponent bounces the ball is to extend the hands.” But Martelli was able to make an impression on junior center Damian Reid about using his hands in the post by discussing the officials’ new focus.
Early on, Reid was whistled in two straight games for wrapping his hands around a defender while trying to establish position. “I told him, ‘You know, the refs are talking about that now before they do one of our games,’” Martelli says. “Since then, we have worked on that every day in practice.” The result is that Reid has been in less foul trouble than before, because he recognizes what is being consistently called.
Georgetown University, on the other hand, chose to work with officials before the season ever began. Although the team has Big East referees officiate preseason scrimmages every year, Head Coach Craig Esherick was particularly keen to have them visit this season.
“The main thing I was concerned about was handchecking,” says Esherick, “because everybody associates Georgetown with handchecking. So I wanted our guys to get used to how the game would be called this year and get accustomed to not doing it.”
Not only did the officials call scrimmages, but the Hoya players also had a chance to pick the refs’ brains. “Two of our conference officials came in and gave an hour-long talk to the players on the new point of emphasis, and it was really helpful. The players asked a lot of good questions.”
According to Esherick, the preseason visit from Big East officials had the desired affect. “We didn’t have that many handchecking calls during the course of the season,” he says. “And when we did, we deserved it.
“I think it’s a really good idea to have officials visit practices,” he continues. “A lot of times players look at officials almost like police officers, and they’re not. They’re part of the game. So situations like this humanize the officials and help the player-referee relationship.
“In addition, coaches are not referees, and it’s difficult to have your assistant coaches ref during practice and still watch for the other elements they need to critique. So having refs attend practices ends up doing two things: It helps acclimate the players to the referees, and it permits the coaches to coach.”
A Foul Dilemma
But coaches admit that despite the new emphasis on curbing rough play, there’s a fine line between playing clean and backing down—and this makes it difficult to know to what extent defensive tactics should be curbed. Since assessed penalties are subject to each ref’s interpretation, some coaches wonder if the sacrifice of a few called fouls is worth more potential points and possessions.
Bo Ryan, Head Coach at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, recognizes the precarious position coaches are being placed in. UWM won 15 games last year and is on the rise in the Midwestern Collegiate Conference. But out of that neighborhood, things can be tough. According to Ryan, when you’re a team with nobody taller than 6’7”, and you’re playing a non-conference schedule that includes Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Colorado, it’s hard to suddenly forfeit contact down low.
“The teams we’ve played out of conference have size and strength and are physical,” Ryan says. “They are going to be good teams, and not because they foul a lot.” For these reasons, Ryan feels obliged to retain some of that physical play despite potentially incurring more fouls.
However, while the point of emphasis on rough play has created unique challenges for all teams, some coaches admit they can see some positive changes emerging as a result. Martelli, for one, is noticing more players catching the ball and turning to shoot down low—an indication that they are being given room to operate, rather than having to wage turf wars every possession. And that’s allowing teams to run their offenses more smoothly.
“These rules allow the offensive game to be executed the right way, to flow well,” says Martelli. “It fits our style, and our big men have also been staying out of foul trouble, because they’re not taking shortcuts by leaning on guys and putting forearms in their backs on defense. So from a selfish point of view, this has been good for us.”
SideBar 1
The Road Ahead
While some coaches are doing their best to adjust, many question if the new emphasis will work. Will rough play decrease in the long run?
According to top officiating coordinators, the answer is yes. They spent the preseason and regular season working hard to ensure consistency—and they expect the same in the postseason.
“I tell coaches that all our officials were given the same information at every clinic around the country before the season started,” says Hank Nichols, NCAA National Coordinator of Men’s Basketball Officiating. “They’ve all seen the same video, and all the supervisors have been instructed to reiterate expectations when they observe crews. And when we see something we don’t like, we go to the source and tell the officials supervisors and the referees that that’s not acceptable—that they have to do a better job in the post, or what have you.”
Some dissatisfied coaches also allege that the point of emphasis, though devised to improve game flow, is actually hampering it. To this criticism, Nichols responds simply.
“Naturally, if we blow more fouls then there’s going to be more stoppage,” he says. “That is, until the players and coaches adjust to avoid the things that will get them a call. Once that happens, we won’t have as many fouls.”
And while Nichols and the NCAA are determined to make this point of emphasis stick, detractors speculate that the emphasis on calling rough plays won’t last. Many officials disagree.
“I’ve been coordinating officials with the Big East for 20 years,” says Big East Officials Coordinator Art Hyland, “and we have never taken as many steps to give preseason publicity, and educate teams on what was to be expected, as we have this year with this roughness point.”
“I don’t want to speak too soon, because we still have the last crucial month of conference play to go, but at this point, officiating hasn’t let up appreciably,” adds Nichols. “And I can guarantee you one thing. Rough play will be called in the NCAA Tournament. There’s no question about that.”
SideBar 2
Straight From The Stripes
To augment early efforts and keep the point of emphasis fresh in the minds of officials and coaches, Hank Nichols, NCAA National Coordinator of Men’s Basketball Officiating, has been using his regular monthly teleconference calls with conference officials supervisors to review where refs are continuing to see roughness emerge and areas that officials need to more diligent in calling fouls. These areas of concern are then included in a monthly bulletin to all conferences, coaches, and officials for review.
The following are some of the observations, reminders, and instructions to officials included in this season’s bulletins:
•The Big Show. In an effort to garner cooperation among officials, the NCAA Men’s Basketball Committee has gone on record stating that any officials who do not enforce the point of emphasis throughout the entire season will not be selected to officiate in the tournament.
•Post Play. Too frequently, offensive players are being permitted to use their lower arm(s) to illegally keep defenders from fronting. Officials have been instructed to call these fouls more diligently.
•Screens. Screeners being pushed and shoved by defenders will not be permitted. In addition, defenders being legally screened who push through the screens and do not stop on contact will be called for a foul. And a screener who sets his screen so close to the rear of an opponent that the opponent cannot take one normal step backwards commits a foul.
•Principle of Verticality. Careful not to penalize defenders with good vertical position, officials have also been instructed to be more cognizant of instances when defenders belly-up or contact the shooters elbow or arm in the process of getting their own arms in the air. This, say officials, is a foul and must be called.
•Bodychecking. Bumping an opponent with one’s body, as an alternate to handchecking, is a foul and should be called as consistently.
•Team Style. Style of play will not dictate how a game is officiated.
•Defending Dribblers. Officials have been instructed not to call fouls on defenders who have dribblers lean into them causing incidental contact.
For copies of the NCAA officials’ bulletins, log onto www.ncaa.org/champadmin/basketball/officiating_bulletins