Wooden and rules

[tom bisson <tbisson@doe.state.vt.us>]

Two things:

Number one:
I enjoyed the short interview with John Wooden during the Finals. He
said that what he looked for in a player was quickness - was his man
quicker than the opponent for that position. That's a really good common
sense approach since quickness can be more effective than size and is
not a "coachable" skill. With that in mind, it's encouraging to see the
quickness on the Celtics current roster. The unanswered question is,
will that quickness be coached into a team that can execute set plays
and play defense? This will be a challenge for ML, who appears to be a
good motivator but not such a good teacher of fundamentals and certainly
not a good strategist.

Number two:
The hop and jump is a legal move. When a player jumps before
establishing a pivot foot (jumps, stops his dribble in the air, and then
lands on both feet simultaneously) then both feet are considered his
pivot. Traveling occurs NOT when the pivot foot (or, in this case, pivot
feet,) leaves the floor, but when it touches the floor again - thus the
classical definition of having a step and a half. This means that after
hopping, it is legal to jump again and either shoot or pass before
landing. Some players will jump while dribbling and not pick up the
dribble until they land. In this case, either foot may be used as a
pivot giving the player another "step and a half."

The play that I think is the hardest to call without the benefit of
replay is the block-charge situation when the offensive player leaves
the floor and then collides with a defensive player who appears to have
legal position. The hard part occurs because the airborne offensive
player has a right to land and therefore the defensive player must
establish position before the offensive player leaves the floor - not
simply before contact. This is very hard for an official to see because
he is often too close and too focused on the ball to see the whole play.
The off officials really need to help in this case but it is hard for
the official who is "right there" not to make the call. What compounds
this (and why getting help is so hard in these cases) is that the
official cannot be hesitant on these calls and must signal the call in a
very definitive manner. If he doesn't, everyone begins second guessing
and game management suffers.

- - tom