NCAA Hoops Perceptions: Off We Go a Travelin’ a Pushin’ and a Hand Checkin’ (and a’ fightin’ if We Ain’t Careful)

By: dwil

Watching an extraordinary amount of college basketball the past month has allowed me to see some serious problems with the game - and I’d like to note them for you.

Travelling:

Players regularly take more than the one-and-a-half steps that we’re all taught is allowed by referees. Today we have the “jump stop” wherein players are allowed to stop their dribble and take a two-footed jump before elevating into the air for a shot or pass. Unfortunately the jump stop has too often become the two-footed jump and then another step to step-and-a-half before a play is made.

The extra movement is patently unfair to the defensive player who has defended well enough to cut off a shot after the jump stop.

Another favorite NCAA Men’s Basketball traveling ploy is the “no pivot foot two step.” This southwest prairie dance move has found its way to the basketball court and is a favorite of point and shooting guards, and athletically-gifted players across the nation.

The no pivot two step most often begins with receiving a pass in the open floor in a half court offense situation. Said offensive player receives a pass, turns to face his defender with a sweep of the ball to back off the defender. He then stands with both feet squared to the defender. A quick series of shoulder jabs gates the defender to move slightly left or right.

When the defender makes a move favorable to our athletically-gifted (and often privately salivating over the soon-to-be scoring opportunity) offensive player, he takes a short power step in the opposite direction of the defender’s movement. He then takes another step in the same direction while beginning his dribble.

The result is a devastating advantage foe the offense, in general. Once by his defender our athletically-gifted ball handler is by his man and has forced the defense to begin to rotate to cover for the beaten defender. Not too many college defenses are disciplined enough to withstand repeated assaults of this sort and invariable break down, allowing our two-stepper many layups or passes to interior players who then offer up rim-shaking dunks that bring the home crowd to their feet and force time outs from opposing head coaches.

A third uncalled traveling violation is the post player’s equivalent of the no pivot four step. In this instance, a powerful inside player receives a pass on the block with his back to the basket and a defender squarely behind him.

The powerful inside player, with no regard and even less respect for his defender immediately, with feet square, takes a both feet off the ground hop turn (often accompanied by an off-arm hook of the soon-to-be pitied - or laughed at - defender) a dribble and a body gathering pitter pat - one foot landing just before the other -  two step jump stop which leads to a layin or two-handed facial.

This four-step Baryshnikov movement from young men 6′7″ and taller and 250 pounds and over is a staple in every college program with a player or players with “quick feet.” These are the players most often referred to by commentators as those who could be converted to NCAA Football or NFL tight ends, which makes sense, since the move is akin to a spin around a linebacker and the first two steps into a pass pattern. That’s a beautiful maneuver on Saturday or Sunday afternoons in the autumn but not on the NCAA hardwood.

The Chris Paul Push Off:

The push off is a ploy popularized by former Wake Forest standout point guard, Chris Paul. Since Paul has matriculated his way to the NBA New Orleans and is regularly seen on television, college point guards across the country have adapted Paul’s patented space-creating move. Problem is, Paul plays in the NBA where rules are fluid and variable. What is a foul in the first quarter might not be a foul in the fourth quarter. What is a fouls for the first 10 minutes of the fourth might not be a foul in the game’s last 1:50. And the last 10 seconds of a game can often look more like a Hollywood wild west barroom free for all scene than 10 men on a basketball court, replete with three officials bent over with heads down, choking on their whistles.

The Chris Paul Push Off is such a part of his game that he has passed it along to the two Wake gurads who have taken his place in Demon Deacons lore, the slight but slick Jeff Teague and the diminutive but quick Ishmael Smith.

Teague and Smith are said to receive multiple phone calls from Paul each week. Apparently CPIII DVR’s their games and critiques the point duo as much and as intensely as Wake head coach Dino Gaudio (is that a prototypical “goombah” name or what?!). The two Wake PGs like most their size (6′2 and 6′0″ respectively), have internalized Paul’s pet push and use it with alarming regularity - and are allowed by the men in stripes to continue to do so.

Paul’s Push is used primarily for two reasons: to create space to allow a smaller guard to get his jumper off and to get a defender who has been blanketing the half-pint point man out of his face so that the PG can relieve the frustration that sets in when he suddenly finds he is not the quickest or fastest player on the floor.

P’s P goes something like this: A play is designed for the point guard to come off a pick and roll at or around the top of the key and get off a wide open jumper. During the play the opposing point man jumps the screen or anticipates the screen and roll and slips around the screener and suddenly confronts the point guard with the ball.

Rather than backing out and starting the play over the point guard will attempt to use his quickness to slip a couple of dribbles down the lane and get up a 12-foot jumper. However, his defender remains close but on his off arm. The guard will take his first dribble with a slight “up fake” - as if he might raise up for a jumper - but continue toward the basket and then, as he takes his second dribble will thrust out his off arm pushing off his ever-so-slightly off balance defender - the result of the up fake - thus creating just enough room to shoot an open jump shot.

P’s P used in frustration is self-explanatory. Yet it must be said that when used in this instance it actually gives the defender an advantage as it is a sign that the PG has lost his cool and his team has or is on the verge of falling apart. The PP used in frustration is seen more often in college. In the pros it has an additional “get out my face” element to it that tells a defender that, though I might be short I ain’t takin’ no ish from you.

Now lest you think the problems are about the offense in NCAA hoops, let me tell you now they decidedly are not.  Let me describe the single most egregious foul not often called on defenders.

Hand Checking:

There is so much hand checking in college basketball that it sometimes looks like there is a nationwide, nationally-televised, male-only, ummmm, grope session going on in front of our eyes. And it is officially officiated and condoned by older black and white men dressed conspicuously in black and white striped shirts, black pants, and black sneakers.

Despite the illusion of national parity in college hoops, there is actually a wide talent disparity between across the over 300 NCAA Basketball teams. Given a well-called game on a neutral court, the only way a less talented basketball team can come close to defeating or upset a more talented team is if it shoots lights out for an entire game or if it is allowed to remove that talent disparity through ploys that slow the movement of the more talented players.

And the most often used ploy is hand checking. Last year during the Big Dance, the Davidson Wildcats used the officials’ largesse to their advantage to tug and push and pull their opposition all the way to the Regional Finals where they ran out of gas both physically and mentally, and were finally dispatched.

But hand checking is also used between two teams of relatively equal talent as well. It has become more and more difficult for players to turn the corner and head to the basket without being hand checked right off their path. Post players who carve out space in the post legally must put in extra effort because defenders often meet them with a stiff arm to the back and two hands on their backs every movement thereafter. And rebounders who have better position that their opposition quickly find themselves pushed too far under the rim and out of good rebounding position.

What ends up here is the beginning of a vicious cycle. If any of the three aforementioned events occur with regularity a head coach will call a time out and challenge his team’s “manhood.” The challenge is normally met with a charge up team taking the court and doing some heavy hand checking of their own.

Because officials do not correctly nip the offense in the bud from a game’s beginning, the physical play escalates to a dangerous level. The refs, who have now lost control of the game, regain control through ridiculous calls that really only serve to make the games disjointed affairs where there is no flow to the game and the players do not know their boundaries. This leads to criticism from coaches and members of the media alike and referees are sometimes incorrectly accused of favoring certain teams or even worse, accused of - cough cough… ahem - fixing games. But on the court the play can become so physical it is a wonder that more fights with players ending up very hurt do not occur weekly.

And for the game of college basketball, inconsistent officiating will be its downfall, if there is to be one. With the hundreds of millions of dollars made by the NCAA, to fail to make its officials full-time employees of the Association borders on being a criminal act. All it will take is one very violent event or one event that is perceived as very violent and the game and all its allure will come tumbling down upon itself. The players will be stigmatized and the game will be called unfixable.

And it might well all begin because of hand checking gone unchecked.

These violations in the NCAA game, gone unchecked, serve to undermine the beauty of basketball, in general, and cause many people in and around the game to questions the forthrightness of the games themselves. And the problem is, there is a simple solution to fixing these problems…

Make the calls, damnit!

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(Coming soon, a Sunday, Outside the Lines report.)

Tags: assault, basketball, choking, Chris Paul, college basketball, davidson wildcats, defense, dollar, final, football, fouls, head coach, hollywood, image, jump shot, levis, media, microsoft, ncaa basketball, ncaa football, new orleans, officials, outside the line, phone calls, referee, rules, scoring, shooting guard, shoulder, television, upset

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