Hoops

Australian basketball more physical???

Isaac may I ask you, with Gorj. and Worthinton in town, and a bit going on with Chappell.
Who would guard Worthington tomorrow?

Boomers have sucked of recent because their offence truely stinks under pressure.

American imports to Aust. in the early days of the NBL used to crave defensive contact so that they could step and "get one" for the same play. In turn this made Aussie basketball more phyical.

A dropoff in physical play could be aligned to the 24 secs rule - less time for it.

From a refs point, it is a soft option to blow cheap contacts to players to back off but refs are more reactive than proactive. That is they get told to call softer by the game's administrator who generally act on behalf of coaches.

Historically teams that win big finals muscle down well. those that cant go home empty.Internationally, it appears that that USA are going home empty more these days, maybe they need to toughen up.

The NBL is just backwards on which fouls get called. My theory is that since the league isn't as 'tall' as others around the world, the referees aren't as familiar about what is allowable in the paint and what isn't.

For instance, the ball carrier is harassed defensively these days and a lot of slaps and hand checks are let go...whereas a guy like Mottram will be called in the paint simply because he's there and the player on offense makes contact with him when they're going to the basket.

IMHO it should be the other way round; contact in the paint should be let go if the defender makes no deliberate contact. If the offensive player backs into them, then that's not a foul on the defense. Whereas, they really need to clamp down on harassing the ball carrier, as the hand contact and forced turnovers make the game ugly to watch.