Both the Dee Davis foul and the Tasha Butts foul implicate the "incidental contact" rule, described in Chapter 4, section 38 of the NCAA basketball rules.
"Incidental contact" generally describes the four situations:
1. contact between two players going for a loose ball, both of whom have "equally favorable positions";
2. other contact resulting from "normal defensive or offensive movement," where both palyers have equally favorable positions;
3. contact that does not hinder the opponent from her normal defensive or offensive movement; or
4. contact when a defender runs into a screen that she does not see.
Whether a foul is incidental does not depend on whether it is "excessive or severe." In other words, that someone (Davis or Butts) gets knocked to the floor doesn't make it non-incidental. "Incidental" is not synonymous with "unintentional" -- effect, not intent, controls.
The Davis foul was not incidental because she had possession (the ball wasn't loose), and Powell hindered her movement. The Butts foul, by contrast, should not have been called because the ball was loose, and both players were moving forward from opposite directions and simply ran into each other while making a legitimate attempt to get the ball.
If Charlie Gonzalez had a chance to explain his call, I think he would say this: Butts was under the hoop and closer to the play, while Stratton ran from behind the basket off the court. They were not in "equally favorable position" to grab the rebound, so it was not incidental contact.
But I don't buy it. Both players had an equal chance at the ball. In fact, as the ball fell and came within reach, it actually looks like Stratton was closer.
There was a remarkably similar play in the Kansas-Georgia Tech men's game yesterday.
Game tied at end of regulation, GT drove coast-to-coast and missed a layup. The ball was loose and there was a big scrum, everyone trying to grab it. There was tons of contact, and in theory, you possibly could have called a foul on several players on each team. But the refs didn't. The buzzer blew, the game ended in a tie, and GT won in OT.
That's what should have happened in the women's game too.
"Incidental contact" generally describes the four situations:
1. contact between two players going for a loose ball, both of whom have "equally favorable positions";
2. other contact resulting from "normal defensive or offensive movement," where both palyers have equally favorable positions;
3. contact that does not hinder the opponent from her normal defensive or offensive movement; or
4. contact when a defender runs into a screen that she does not see.
Whether a foul is incidental does not depend on whether it is "excessive or severe." In other words, that someone (Davis or Butts) gets knocked to the floor doesn't make it non-incidental. "Incidental" is not synonymous with "unintentional" -- effect, not intent, controls.
The Davis foul was not incidental because she had possession (the ball wasn't loose), and Powell hindered her movement. The Butts foul, by contrast, should not have been called because the ball was loose, and both players were moving forward from opposite directions and simply ran into each other while making a legitimate attempt to get the ball.
If Charlie Gonzalez had a chance to explain his call, I think he would say this: Butts was under the hoop and closer to the play, while Stratton ran from behind the basket off the court. They were not in "equally favorable position" to grab the rebound, so it was not incidental contact.
But I don't buy it. Both players had an equal chance at the ball. In fact, as the ball fell and came within reach, it actually looks like Stratton was closer.
There was a remarkably similar play in the Kansas-Georgia Tech men's game yesterday.
Game tied at end of regulation, GT drove coast-to-coast and missed a layup. The ball was loose and there was a big scrum, everyone trying to grab it. There was tons of contact, and in theory, you possibly could have called a foul on several players on each team. But the refs didn't. The buzzer blew, the game ended in a tie, and GT won in OT.
That's what should have happened in the women's game too.
posted by Ted at 1:45 PM
