Block/Charge Calls

There has been a decent amount of chatter the past few days/weeks on the d3 boards about block/charge calls (not limited to the MIAA board).

In the two situations that stick in my mind, posters were debating calls that were whistled as blocks at the time that they think should have been charges. It wasn't whining about calls that didn't go their team's way, but more about discussing the ever-present gray area in the block/charge rule.

The NCAA tried to eliminate some of that gray area -- and open up space for offense -- with some changed and/or altered rules that were implemented before the 2014 season.

One of those is Rule 4, Section 17, Article 4 which defines legal guarding position. Here's point d:

When the opponent with the ball is airborne, the guard shall have attained legal guarding position before the opponent begins his upward motion with his hands/arms to shoot or pass.

The old rule was that defenders must establish legal guarding position prior to the shooter/passer leaving the playing surface. The new rule pushes that burden further ahead in time, to the point at which the shooter/passer has begun "upward motion with his hands/arms". Back when the rule was new, Coach Vande Streek mentioned in an interview that this would be interpreted to be a player's gather.

So, anyway, here's a couple of screen shots from last night's MIAA Semifinal between Calvin and Alma. This particular call had the Alma contingent (including coach Hargraves) up in arms (and, to be fair, I would have been the same way), but it looks to be a pretty clear by-the-book block call (click to embiggen).

Doug Bradfield was in the middle of the lane, sliding over to defend Jordan Brink. He ended up receiving the blocking foul, for his fifth and final foul of the game. Please excuse the play button symbols in the middle of the shots

The picture on the left is Brink preparing to shoot. He has stopped dribbling and is in the process of bringing the ball up high to shoot. Bradfield is not yet in position.

The picture on the right is the point of contact. Bradfield has obviously moved his feet between the two pictures (it's easy to see because his shoes are the darker maroon color).

It would be a lot closer -- and maybe go the other way -- if we were to take a snapshot of the moment Brink jumped from the court, but that is no longer the reference point.

In this particular case, our MIAA official friends got the call 100% correct.

The NCAA Really Needs to Reconsider Division III Basketball’s Regional Criteria

I get angry at the NCAA’s regional criteria approximately 17 times per calendar year. They just don’t make complete sense as they relate to the Calvin Knights. Coach Vande Streek previously alluded to the NCAA applying pressure on Calvin to schedule more in-region Division III games (there’s also strong speculation out there that a portion of the reason that Calvin didn’t get selected to a Pool C bid to the NCAA tournament in 2009 and 2010 was because the NCAA wanted to “send a message” to get Calvin to schedule more of these games).

The problem is, however, that the NCAA isn’t doing the Knights any favors when it comes to the scheduling of said games.

There are three ways that a non-conference basketball game can be considered to be “in-region” (all conference games are always defined to be in-region):

• Games played against teams in the same defined geographic region (the Great Lakes for Calvin)
• Games played against teams in the same administrative region (Calvin is in Region 3: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia)
• Games played against schools located within 200 miles of your school (driving, not as the crow flies)

This is probably all well and good for over 90% of the country, but it’s definitely a problem for Calvin. These criteria push the Knights to the south and east to find regional games, but this direction isn’t necessarily where the closest schools are.

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What the Rules Actually Say: Blocking and Charging Fouls

The block/charge calls are always among the most controversial in college basketball. The plays develop so quickly and we’re left debating whether or not the defender was “set” or whether he was “still moving”. Unfortunately, the way these plays are called and our perception of the rules are quite different from what the rulebook has to say.

Here’s how the NCAA rule book defines blocking and charging:

Rule 4, Section 9, Art. 1. Blocking is illegal personal contact that impedes the progress of an opponent.
Rule 4, Section 12, Art. 1. Charging is illegal personal contact by pushing or moving into an opponent’s torso.

Pretty boring and uninformative, right? The question now becomes about what “illegal personal contact” is. We all already know (generally) what this means. Did the defender establish a legal guarding position before the contact was made or not? In practice, this is usually defined by whether or not the player was set or stationary, but the rules don’t actually say anything like that. Let’s look at what they do say about Legal Guarding Position.

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