Running 2023-24 NCAA Basketball Thread

I was wondering about this:

https://ncaaorg.s3.amazonaws.com/championships/sports/basketball/rules/common/PRXBB_CourtDiagram.pdf

So the rules specify there must be "approximately 3-12 feet" of coaching box space between the sideline and the team benches or front row of other seating (spectators or hardly ever anymore, media) an amazingly imprecise figure for a diagram in which many of the other values are specified down to increments of 1/8 inch.

Now I've coached myself, and I know at places where the team benches or other seating is tight up on the sideline, within that 3-foot limit, if you're walking up and down in front of the bench, if guys legs are sticking out, it's kind of a tightrope situation to keep from stepping on, sometimes a half step over the sideline.

But a) most courts are really not that tight, and it probably wouldn't be the end of the world if they changed that nebulous murky "approximately 3-12 feet" to a carved-in-stone "minimum of 60 inches."
If the width of the coaching box were set at a specific minimum of 60 inches (5 feet) that's plenty of open space for the most footloose coaches to do their pirouettes and backspins, you name it, but then make it automatic bang zoom technical for the coach to set one toenail on the court.

 

Remember the Seatbelt Rule?

https://www.sunjournal.com/2016/12/15/buckle-high-school-basketball-obscure-bizarre-rules/

I remember covering a game in which a kid (let's say Team A) hit a free throw to take a 1-point lead with :01 left, only to have a ref (let's call him R1) run in from halfcourt to call a technical on the shooting team's coach, on the far end of the court, who had of course, leaped out of his seat when the kid hit the FT.

Even the opposing coach (Team B) thought it was bullshit. "I think that probably qualifies as "spontaneous," he said, but the ref stuck to it, he claimed it wasn't spontaneous because "you could see the coach getting ready to jump even before the shot."

Not only that, the other ref R2 seemed pretty doubtful himself. He tried to talk R1 out of the call, but he was hell bent. "Clear violation of the seatbelt rule." R1 had seniority, I guess, so the call stuck.

The "offending" Team A coach just stood there in a glassy eyed robotic icy rage. "I knew I couldn't say a word, if I said anything they'd tee me up again, I knew I had to keep my mouth shut and hope the kid missed the free throws."

He didn't. The Team B kid made both free throws to take back the lead, they threw the ball in, game was over.

Team B was the home team so the crowd reaction was split about three ways between disbelief/incomprehension, mild disapproval and gleeful gloating at a gift win.

At the buzzer, the refs sprinted off the court like Jesse Owens. Coach A went full Hiroshima, of course. "The game is down to one second left in a tie game," he said. "What the hell is this dude doing watching me down on the other end of the floor, at a 180-degree angle from the action on the court??"

Coach B said, "officially, my only comment is, 'I guess I've seen it all.' "

Off the record, he said, "I was debating telling our kid to miss the free throws, or maybe to throw the ball out of bounds on the inbounds pass (which would have given Team A at least some chance at a miracle shot)," but he said "I've gotten screwed by the refs plenty of times in my career, maybe it was my time for Santa Claus to come calling."

Plus the two coaches were not exactly buddy pals so Coach B said, "yeah, he got screwed. Too bad."

I think the ref was a grouchy old guy shuffling into retirement.

 

Next up on Crazy Calls from The Olden Days:

1) Remember when the rules in HS and college basketball required players committing a personal foul to raise their hand, and called for a technical if they did not do this promptly enough, or in a "resentful or defiant manner"??

2) The Dark Ages of the Dunk, 1967-76. Dunking was of course illegal in college and HS in those years. I believe it was only supposed to be a violation/turnover for a first violation or a "marginal" dunk, but I saw refs call flagrant 2-shot "unsportsmanlike" technicals on very flimsy fingertip dunks and near-dunks. There seemed to be a very high level of concern about players getting "uppity" and violating this rule.

I remember one coach after a game when one of his kids got called for a dunking technical, saying, "I got 8 other guys who CAN dunk, that kid couldn't dunk if he was jumping off a gymnastics springboard."

Then there was a district tournament game between Badass City High and Softy Suburban Preppy School, in which all 12 of the Badass City players dunked in warmups, right in a row, slam slam slam slam 12 times total. At the other end the Softy Suburban players stood gape-mouthed.

Sure enough, the refs, two white guys in crew cuts and horn rimmed glasses, called 12 technicals on Badass City. Game starts with Softy Suburban shooting 24 free throws. They make 16 and score on the inbounds play, so four seconds into the first quarter, Softy Suburban leads 18-0.

Final score, Badass City High 93, Softy Suburban Prep 56.

 

Shaheen Holloway of Seton Hall gets so demonstrative asking for a travel on Creighton’s inbounder (he was right BTW) that he not only gets on the court but crosses half court in the process. That got him a talking to but no tech.

 

No offense to VanDerveer, but I see the combined mens-womens record book has been cracked open again. You remember, the one that had UConn's women beating UCLA men's consecutive win mark?

 

Yeah, it’s absurd. It’s like matching softball to baseball records.

 

Big East refs can't give him a tech for that when they let Shaka Smart practically set screens without a whistle.

 

Probably explained Kevin Keatts' episode in Raleigh against Wake Forest. Following the game, he was emphasizing that his team show fight.

Thing is, he's now been tossed twice this season, a first for him in his career. Not a hothead and not prone to jump all over officials.

So that's where we are ... not just get T'd up, but have to get tossed to show your passion?

 

I’ve always worried John Groce is going to accidentally sit down on the wrong bench, he gets so into it and so far across the half court line.

 

that UConn coach is also like nine wins behind her, so he could pass her sometime in the next two years

and she got a seven season head start