A few rants, ravings, and a little madness about college basketball season.
All right people listen up. You might hate to hear people complain (I certainly do), but usually it’s because people complain about stupid things. When I go to the library and attempt to study, too often I hear a girl say in a really nasal whiney voice, “This chapter is soooo long.... Why do we have to reeeeeaaad this…. I suuuuuck….” Ok, the last sentence is a bit of an editorial statement, but seriously people, don’t waste my oxygen so you can give people headaches.
Now, one thing that deserves to be bitched about is the state of officiating in college basketball. For the last few years, my friends and I have watched games and developed ulcers after attempting to contain our anger—anger caused by terrible calls by stupid zebras. One call that is consistently butchered is the charging offensive foul. I sound like a broken record during CBS basketball Saturdays and Sundays because I constantly yell, “that’s not a charge!” Not to toot my own horn or anything like that, but I’m usually right.
Before I get into this in more detail, please watch the above video. It explains what a “charge” is in basketball. I bet a lot of you don’t actually know what constitutes a proper charge. So watch it. At the end of the video, the guy says a “charge can make or break a game.” This shouldn’t be the case, but officials have made it true. Basketball is a game built around offense. I repeat. Basketball is a game built around offense. Calls like charging exist so that a player can’t just plow through a defender if he is in position. However, the charge is not meant to be a major factor in a game. It’s just meant to stop blatant offensive fouls.
Too many times officials call charges when people on offense are clearly making a play at the hoop and not trying to plow through anyone. What’s more, charges are called all the time when a player goes up for a lay-up and even makes an effort to twist his body out of the way of the defender near the hoop so no contact at all is made. In fact, officials love to call the offensive foul charge so much, that a lot of players are becoming more hesitant to drive to the hoop, thereby ruining basketball. I personally think most officials just want attention and the best attention grabber (not to mention most fun hand gesture) is the charge call.
If you think that I’m the only one that feels charge calls are getting ridiculous, then you are incredibly wrong and should never hold an opinion again. Most basketball commentators and analysts are getting in on the referee bashing. One basketball brain that I really respect, Jay Bilas, has repeatedly criticized college basketball officials for calling offensive fouls when defensive fouls should be called. The most common occurrence of this is when a post player runs to the bottom of the hoop right before the person going for the lay-up is about to let go of the ball, gets in the driver’s path (while still moving his feet), makes contact, and flops backwards while yelling out in imaginary pain.
Did that confuse you? The video above of Duke players trying to draw charges and officials calling defensive fouls properly. This is very rare. I provide this video to show you how referees should call games. While we’re at it, watch the worst Duke flopper ever Greg Paulus act like an idiot in the video below.
The video of the Duke vs. Clemson game is probably the only game in the last 10 years that the charging foul has been called (or not called correctly). The NCAA needs to school its officials better and make sure they do not continue to suck. The NBA put in a halo under the basket so that players who are going to definitely score will not get called for bogus charging fouls. The NCAA should do the same thing.
If you don’t agree, then say so.
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