Had a fast break play tonight where a defender crushed an offensive player gong in for a fast break layin. He went for the ball, but also came across with a full body block. Hard foul, offensive player crashed to the ground hard, groaned, writhed in pain, and stayed down for a little bit.
I know the defender fouled him hard, but he also made some play up top for the ball. I almost put the cross up for Intentional, and I would have called it as a "Hard Foul". I hesitated as I tried to compute the situation quickly enough. Partner 1 cruised in to to in close proximity to the crash site. "Upgrade? What do you think?" He looked at me and said, "I don't think so." Other partner: "No." So I stayed with a common foul. With 2.5 votes out of 3, probably the right call.
If you have a borderline intentional or flagrant, it never hurts you to get a second opinion. You can always upgrade the foul: "Coach, we both thought it was 'excessively hard contact' so we upgraded the foul!" "Coach, he swung at him, and we both saw it. That's flagrant and he's out." It is a lot harder to downgrade.
Last year, we upgraded a foul where the kid got flipped and cut his head wide open on a fast break. I do not think it was intentional or malicious, but by upgrading the foul as a crew we prevented any retaliation or escalation that the bloody scene could have ignited. It was the right thing to do. "Hard foul, 2 and the ball."
Unless you are certain on an intentional or flagrant, quick crew decisions may be a great tool for you.
1 comment:
As a coach I see this a lot. A lot fo referees don't know what an intentional foul is and underreact or overreact. Nice to know that they can get together. I'll be suggesting that! You need to move over here, George!
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