Hoops

I miss 12 minute quarters...

Sorry #3363 ... so the prerogative exists - provided it is within the 'spirit and intent of the rules', which is the real point, isn't it?

Perhaps those who are managing referees would do the sport a service by spending some time exploring that - and workshopping it with the officials - rather than focusing on the option to ignore what is happening in front of them.

The rules are there for a reason, which on at least one level is to keep some parity between offence and defence and allow players - and teams - to compete on the level of their skils and abilities, not brute strength and a willingness to keep on hitting people until referees come to 'see' illegal contact as acceptable and choose to ignore it.

Surely not in the 'spirit' or 'intent' of the game.

Pro 12 for me.

I vote for 12 minute quarters too. The only problem is that it won't happen while we keep up the farce of the last 3 minutes taking 15 because of all the fouling to send people to the line in the hope that they'll miss. The total game needs to fit into a TV timeslot, usually 2 hours, together with advertising and commentators and all that. Extending the game means something else needs to be sacrificed to fit it in - for me, it would be to reduce the time wasted on the commentators, and in the last 3 minutes.

POP - hear hear!! It's about time that the refs take control of the game again instead of being dictated to by owners and sponsors who just want to see the stars on court. It's made a joke of the game, making ir more like AFL, and making it hard for real talent to shine.

The key is to have the game called by the rules, so scorers have an opportunity to score and defenders need, and are coached, to play defence, rather than grappling, pushing, holding, chopping, pushing and throwing opponents to the floor, as we've seen in women's games recently.

The game has been brutalised - and is allowed to be by ineffectual refereeing - to such an extend that the very nature of it has changed.

Strength is good; thuggery is cheap and lazy.

The rules are designed to maintain a balance between offence and defence, and only a return to calling the rules as they are written will achieve that.

We'll know that is starting to happen when referees are instructed to stop coaching - 'stop holding' or 'don't hold', for example, is coaching, not refereeing. More importantly, it means the official has seen a hold and decided not to call it: not his or her prerogative!

Calling the rules might see a few 'stars' on the bench for a week or two, but they [& their coaches!] would soon adjust and we'd start to see good defence, good offence and higher-scoring, more exciting games, whether they last for 40 or 48 minutes.

Yes, Bring back 12min quarters, it adds so much to the game. Bench players become important and so does the coach.

Here Here. i want 12 minute quarters too. not only does it produce better quality basketball i believe but coaches can coach more, but from a sponsors point of view, their are more time outs, more chances for advertising, games go longer so from a sponsors point of view their is better value for money, especially if both TV audiences rise and game attendence.