Hoops

Refereeing is much better this year.

Fine line all this stuff, interpretations and consistency along with common sense officiating is always going to be the biggest challenge combined and those referees with good communication skills always stand out.

@Anonymous - Are you Mal Cooper?

At the moment, refereeing may still be a bit inconsistent, but at least the refs are not calling touching netball/WNBL fouls. Basketball is a physical game, and under Cooper's watch, I would rather watch netball. Let the boys bump.

There seems to be a ridiculous amount of fouls called whilst shooting the 3. Why the focus there?

POP & Supernintendo - I'm with you guys.

To all you NBL refs out there, the players aren't taking you seriously under this chatty way of controlling the game, so BLOW the EFFING whistle or put the rule book away. Stop pretending you're in control, cos you aren't!

Better? Really? Probably not worse, but no better, in my opinion. We keep hearing about 'interpretation', but while charge/block has 'always' been a largely 'value' call that is really the only one, isn't it?

I'd suggest some [much?] more time spent with the rule book and maybe some [structured] game play situations so the refs have a chance to 'reset' their instinctive recognition/reactions to what is legal [actually within the rules] instead of all the illegal stuff they've been subjected to[& come to accept as 'normal']for so many seasons would pay huge dividends. Of course, to capitalise on that they would actually have to watch the feet and the body, not the ball [check out where they are looking a lot of the time!] and blow the whistle.

'Using the voice' rather than the whistle just means we have five coaches in the game, two on the sidelines and three with whistles. And while the coaches with the whistles are talking/coaching one player or situation they are not doing the rest of their job. By the way, when do they stop talking and blow the whistle on the guy they are talking to? Another subjective decision they have to make, which further complicates and increases the decision-making [over]load. KISS, anyone?

The rules are there to ensure the game is a fair contest between teams and between players. Maybe we could try using them instead of focusing on 'interpretation', which has the effect of opening the way for each individual ref to call his/her version of the rules. And even that isn't consistent, as we see demonstrated again, and again, and again.

Just stumbled across this on the BA website...

Boomers guard/forward Joe Ingles has been named the Player of the Week in the Spanish ACB League.

On fire from the start of the game, Ingles, who plays for CB Granada, finished the clash against Jacobean Blu with an outstanding rating of 34 points and was named Player of the Week for the second time this season in the Spanish League.

Link + Video: http://linky.com.au/9sctu

Ingles had a double-double, scoring 21 points including 7/11 shooting, including 4/6 on three's and 3/3 from the line in the win over Jacobean Blu. He also had 10 rebounds and 4 assists.