NCAA Updates Block/Charge Rule
The NCAA made, in my opinion, an excellent update to the block/charge rule in basketball. LINK. The rule now states that a defender must establish position prior to the offensive player planting a foot to go up with the ball rather than when the offensive player left their feet.
It might be difficult for refs to know when exactly the offensive player plants their feet to go up with the ball, but it will change the timing of the block/charge calls to favor offensive players. I thought the interpretation of the rule favored defensive players too much, and I appreciate this change that shifts the preference to the player making an aggressive move to the hoop.
lol block/charge already overwhelmingly favors offensive players, wtf
Hard to see charges even being called with this interpretation. Defender has to settle and not move before the foot plants? Might as well be a cardboard cutout.
Did you read the article? The NCAA Rule Committee felt that refs were calling too many charges. The folks that study the rules thought that the old interpretation favored defenders too much.
Defense had turned into trying to draw charges rather than playing actual defense. I think this should be coupled with a more expansive interpretation of charges against on-ball defenders and push-offs to help reward truly good defense.
The NCAA always feels there is too much defense.
The real problem is terrible officiating (players aren't stupid -- they always get a feel for how the game is called) but replacing them with professionals costs money and the NCAA is all about spending as little as possible on the game itself.
This is their way of dealing with a problem that costs them nothing. I'd say they didn't consider the consequences but they don't care about consequences, so. . .
I agree with your officiating comment. The inconsistency makes the game almost unwatchable. But not completely unwatchable so there isn't an incentive to make a change.
Totally agree, they are just tweaking rules based on the incompetent system of officiating.
any rule that is hard for officiating is a bad rule. With good rules, they can bring in video and AI technology to the officiating.
If they coupled this rule change with your recommendation, then I'd agree with you.
But...that's just fan fiction and the NCAA is never going to do that.
do you watch college basketball? most players just straight line drive right into someone. only 1 in 3 charges get called correctly if that.
This, it either eliminates charges entirely or eliminates defense entirely.
At this point you might as well just turn your back to the offense and hope you get a rebound.
Or they could try and contest the shot. If you're gonna get a block call, might as well actually try and play defense rather than stand there covering your nuts.
Hey, at times last year the nuts were the only thing we could cover.
Good, they should get rid of charges. Being a roadblock isn't good defense. You should not be rewarded because a help defender just decided to stand to jump in late and get in your way instead of playing defense.
Offense should be favored! most college games have poor enough shooting to get out of the fifties in scoring regardless -- this at least adds something to get more points if it's already going to be ugly, ugly basketball in the big ten.
Getting a charge should be hard. And it's far too easy in the college game. I can't stand when a ref calls a charge because a player was in the air and defender slid into them when they'd already gathered to take off. The worst is still when they give an off-ball defender a charge call when they're coming over to help on a drive and slide into the offensive players path and take a glancing blow. Such a lame call that should always be a block.
All rules favor the team the refs like more, especially vague rules like charge/block.
I'm in the minority, I think, but I still think offenses are given too much freedom. The current interpretation of the traveling rule is laughable, players palm the ball on almost every dribble, and the continuation calls for and-ones defy reason. Rule changes that make it even more difficult for defenses don't resonate much with me.
I'm with you. The NBA lost me forever with their hand-check rule.
Austin Reaves has made a lot of money with the hand-check and charge.
He’s the biggest example of these rules being exploited. He has a highlight film of taking charges. He said that he watched film on how great players draw fouls.
I agree, but that's the way things are going. College sports and sports in general are increasingly making rule changes to make games higher scoring and more fast paced. We're seeing it in football, basketball, baseball, etc. I think it's eroding the integrity of the sports, but when there's a profit motive at the top, they don't really care
You may be right. I don't really care if a game's rules are skewed towards the offense, but allowing offensive players to simply disregard the rules is really irritating. It would be like the NCAA instructing college football referees not to call holding to facilitate more scoring. Which ... honestly, I feel like they've essentially also done, come to think of it.
Oh bah humbug, there's no integrity left to erode -- they sold the last slice years ago. This is really just, what kind of game do you want to see, what do you want to decide the outcome. I personally find scoring to be more exciting when it takes some effort, but the suits running the show very much are onto something when they treat Americans like they're mindlessly obsessed with cheap fixes -- and are consistently proved correct.
The officiating is terrible, the technique is unwatchable, the leagues are shamelessly corrupt to the core, but revenues are higher than ever. And nothing is more important than revenue, so who am I to argue with how sports should be played?
Offense, offense, offense. Americans can't get enough. They might just ban defense entirely in my lifetime, and they'll be right to do it if people keep watching. And they will. So I mean, just keep expecting more of this to happen.
this is actually a pretty big deal, if it's enforced properly. That call has been so marginal and subjective already, that extra time should really sway things towards the offense.
I really wish they would do away with bullshit charge calls away from the basket. Like when a defender just stops in front of a player at halfcourt. There is absolutely no reason for that play to exist in the game.
100% !! That's what I get to in my post below. Nothing about that is defense. .. "getting in the way". If you did that in pick up, you might get a punch thrown your way.
There goes the entire Wisconsin defensive approach. Welp, back to the drawing board. Time to bring back the nut punch.
This is a great move and way overdue. There's no way there should be an offensive foul when a defender intentionally slips into your pathway, not to defend you but to take advantage of a weak rule.
I doubt this impacts Wisconsin because they're the darling of B1G refs and that's not going to change.
This is one of the more difficult calls to make. In general, there are too many blocks called when the offensive player is clearly initiating contact by changing the course of their path (into the defender)-with a majority of the intent revolving around the significant percentage of times the defender will be called for an infraction. There is a reason coaches teach their players to leap into the face of the defender when driving to the bucket. Here, there should be more no-calls. I am okay with the offensive player moving into the vertical space of the defender but I am not okay with the defender being called for a foul when clearly the contact is coming from the offensive player. Otherwise, it would be just fine to have more officials who have a clue about the playing of the game.
Yes, if they reasonably and consistently enforce (1) the rule of verticality, and (2) not calling defensive fouls when the offensive player steams ahead and the defender is giving ground but also moving sideways beating the offensive player to the spot, then this is fine. The problem is that they don't fairly and consistently do that so the defensive players end up flopping because sometimes it's the only way to get the call or not be called for a defensive foul.
Maybe they should update more rules because BURKE’S BLOCK WAS CLEAN.
If youre a defender would you rather take your chance trying to draw a charge? Or contest a shot where you may or may not get called for your sweat making contact with the shooter?
I always thought the advantage has gone with the shooter. Its always been annoying seeing the shooter getting the defender to jump so he could make contact even if he had no intention of attempting a shot. Cheap way to get to the line.
Either way refs are going to call what they want no matter how many rule changes are placed.
That's the defender being undisciplined. You will pay for that. John B teams were great at staying on the ground and still contesting. It's a pump fake and not cheap.
I officiated high school for a number of years. The charge call has been abused to death. Get in the way in last split second, cause a car crash in the lane, take away a potential great play and give the ball back to the other team.
I've said now for years, get rid of the weak side charge calls. Keep on ball charges. Those seem more legit. Make defenders defend the ball and the rim. So many great plays get robbed because of these dangerous last second slide in by defenders. Crazy that pick up basketball is played just fine without it.
I just said this in another reply but agree 100%. I hate seeing an off-ball defender slide into the side of the driver, out of the drivers field of vision, take a glancing blow, and then get a charge call. Any ref who gives that defender a charge call should be demoted to reffing middle school. Both the defender and driver have a right to the hoop, but the off-ball guy has no right to anything, in my opinion.
Never heard that before, but I like it. help side just comes in (a la kyle lowry) and slides underneath and obliterates 3 guys. that should NOT be an offensive foul. I think the 2nd defender must engage in a defensive position BEFORE he can take a charge, even on a double team.
The flopping in the NBA is exhausting. As a celtics fan, watching embiid and jimmy butler claim to be tough guys while they fall down at the whiff of a fart is aggravating as hell. but its not a new thing. Lebron... bro.
as a celtics fan
Marcus Smart entering the room and immediately sliding across the court like he was shot out of a cannon
I'm in for whatever gets us further and further away from watching the shane battiers of the world run and line up underneath some high flyer only to see that person come crashing down and get hurt AND get the foul called on them...
Less flops? I'm all for it.
To me, this just makes logical sense. The reasoning behind a charge call, based on my understanding, is that the defender has established himself on the court, and has a right to occupy that spot. If the offensive player then pushes him off that spot (by running into him), the offensive player is in the wrong.
That logic goes out the window if a defender establishes position after the offensive player has already committed to a certain path by leaving his feet.
I'm probably getting too much into semantics, but....I'm a lawyer.
Dear Esq.
Even lawyers can make sense.
That needs to be a bumper sticker.
Good call.
They also need to address the big man on the block who repeatedly beats back his defender with a shoulder to the chest until he's in the position he wants. If that happened anywhere else on the floor it would be a foul.
This would be fine, if they had also changed the rules to make it an automatic offensive foul every time the player with the ball lowers his shoulder, pushes off with his forearm, or elbows the defender to create space for a shot. As it stands now, defenses don't have a prayer.
The game needs more offensive fouls not less. The player who initiates the contact is the offender, that's all it should be. No more pump faking then jumping sideways into a guy in the air No more going up for a dunk and using your offhand to swipe the defender's hands away. While we're at it, let's remove 'gather step' from the vocabulary.
This is actually huge. The charge block was my biggest issue with the game. It was too subjective, favored the defense too often, rewarded defensive players for hitting a spot rather than playing defense, and had become unsafe. Best example for my last point is when Anthony Davis straight up undercut Ja Morant and drew the charge while Ja damn near broke his wrist and was out for the rest of the game
the best calls in these type situations are "no calls"; the most underrated call in college basketball.
Dude, refs don’t understand the rule as is, changing the rule will not impact how they call games based on their prior experience.