How do we officiate restricted area plays in NCAA women’s basketball?
When it comes to how to officiate restricted area plays in NCAA women’s basketball, understanding the roles and responsibilities for each position on the crew is critical for getting these plays right.
There are three parts in this video:
- Is an excerpt from the preseason video of a couple years ago. June Corteau goes through some RA plays and proper mechanics etc
- An animated video produced by NCAA which will diagram explicitly the LDB and aspects of RA plays
- We’ll go to some plays from my games and I’ll talk about what we need to do as officials as a crew to get these plays right alright let’s get started
June Corteau covers How to officiate restricted area plays in NCAA women’s basketball:
- “The restricted area is in effect when the player with the ball starts or moved to the basket outside the LDB. The restricted area is not in effect when the player with the ball starts or moved to the basket inside the LDB.
- A secondary defender is considered to be in the restricted area when any part of either foot is in or above this area.
- In all fast-break situations all defensive players are initially secondary defenders until they establish legal guarding position outside the RA.
[bctt tweet=”June Corteau covers How to officiate restricted area plays in NCAA women’s basketball: “The restricted area is in effect when the player with the ball starts or moved to the basket outside the LDB. The restricted area is not in effect when the player with the ball starts or moved to the basket inside the LDB. A secondary defender is considered to be in the restricted area when any part of either foot is in or above this area. In all fast-break situations all defensive players are initially secondary defenders until they establish legal guarding position outside the RA.” username=”BetterOfficials”]
On this Center side drive three red beats her primary defender and charges into the secondary defender who is located in the restricted area to take a charge. the Lead official calls the blocking foul and points to the RA. the Center is responsible for the primary defender on the backside of this play. great call and accurate signal.
Play 1
the highlighted secondary defender did not establish initial legal guarding position before her opponent has left the floor. she is late on this play. blocking is the correct call. the official displays the correct blocking signal and even though the secondary defender is in the RA the official correctly does not point to the RA. remember when you point to the RA you are saying that the secondary defender is illegal only because she is in the RA. this secondary defender is illegal because she did not establish legal guarding position prior to the offensive player leaving the floor. good call!
Play 2
The highlighted secondary defender does not establish initial legal guarding position outside the RA when the illegal contact occurs. This is a blocking foul for being in the restricted area to take a charge. when the illegal contact occurred on this play if the defender would have been outside the RA this would have been a player control foul. it is important that we show the correct signal on these types of plays to communicate to our partners players coaches and media why this is a blocking foul. when calling a blocking foul on a secondary defender because she was located in the restricted area on a play that originated outside the LDB the calling official must sound the whistle and raise one hand fist clenched and show a blocking signal then point to the RA.
Play 3
The highlighted offensive player receives the ball and makes her move to the basket inside the LDB the RA is off this is a straight up block charge play. 50 purple gets to the spot first and establishes initial legal guarding position. the offensive player charges into the legal defender. This is a player control foul. the Lead referees the players in his primary area and has a great view of the defender and the offensive player. accurate call and quality mechanics!”
Animated Instructional Portion How to officiate restricted area plays in NCAA women’s basketball:
The Lower Defensive Box also referred to as the LDB is an imaginary box on the floor that uses four marks the two tick marks on the endline and both second Lane space marks on the free-throw Lane as reference points this box is used to determine a player control or blocking foul on a secondary defender located in the restricted area when a player with the ball starts her move from within the LDB there is no restricted area otherwise when a player with the ball starts her move from outside the LDB the restricted area rule is still in effect. Let’s illustrate the rule first with plays that originate from outside the Lower Defensive Box.
Play 1
White 34 is outside the LDB when she starts her move to the basket. she beats her primary defender and runs into a secondary defender who had established legal guarding position outside the restricted area. This is, and always has been, a player control foul on white 34 because blue 10 had established a legal guarding position outside the restricted area.
in this play white 34 again is outside the LDB when she starts her move to the basket she beats her primary defender and runs into a secondary defender who had established her initial guarding position inside the restricted area and remained in the restricted area. This is a blocking foul on blue ten because she established an initial guarding position in the restricted area on a player who was outside the LDB when she started her move to the basket this has been the rule since 2011. now let’s look at plays that start from within the Lower Defensive Box.
Play 2
White 50 has the ball inside the LDB when she starts her move to the basket. she beats her primary defender and runs into a secondary defender who has legally established an initial guarding position outside the restricted area. This is and always has been a player control foul on White 50 because blue 44 had established a legal guarding position in this play.
White 50 has the ball inside the LDB when she starts her move to the basket she beats her primary defender and runs into a secondary defender who has established an initial guarding position inside the restricted area. This is a player control foul on White 50 because she started her move to the basket from within the LDB and created the illegal contact on a legally established defender. A player is considered to be inside the LDB when either foot is on or within the box.
White 50 is straddling the LDB when she starts her move to the basket she beats her primary defender and runs into a secondary defender who legally established an initial guarding position inside the restricted area. This is a player control foul on White 50 because she started her move to the basket from within the LDB and created the illegal contact on a legally established defender.
Greg Austin: How to officiate restricted area plays in NCAA women’s basketball
The 2018 camp teaching points will be our guidance.
Our most important thing as the calling official is to just is judge the legal status of the player regardless of the line. If we can perceive the line then that’s fantastic, but first we have to just make the judgment about the players status whether they have legal guarding position. Call the play on its merits — that is job number one.
The problem is that officials are locking up — brain cramping — because they’re in doubt. They’re not sure of the position of the feet. Their brain is ultra processing and they end up making no call or the wrong call because they are tied in knots mentally.
So here is our guidance: you are freed up from any responsibility of the line make the call. Call the play on its merits and let the crew help us get the call right.
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Trail is not absolved on a Center side drive. They often have the open look as to where the position of the feet of the secondary defender are.
Outside LDB as well, as the legality of the secondary help defender. The Trail and Center are responsible to have an open look on the defenders feet.
Play breakdown:
Play 1
Crew rotates great position secondary defender takes the charge right she’s clearly in the RA. This is a transition play. Calling official could easily signal from here. We want to get in their path and communicate what we have. “Partner her left foot was in the arc.” Make definitive statements. We get the play right as a crew. This is a big success for us. Lead official could come with their biggest punch — it doesn’t matter. We want to get plays right. In this situation this is an RA play and we get it right.
Play 2
Center official stays with the play. This is a pass and crash play. The arc is still in effect and the calling official accurately judges that the player had established her position. 2 feet on the floor facing the opponent prior to the offensive player going airborne. Calling official makes the determination.
The non-calling officials are responsible to know that the player was in the arc and relay that information. Here, that’s what we do as a crew.
If you are the non-calling official and have information, get in the path of the calling official. We are going to make a change to this call. We want to get to it as soon as possible. Get into the path of where they want to go.
If you are the calling official and another official is coming to you in this fashion then start to process. say “OK, they obviously have information for me.” information is given. correct procedure then is to crack indicate so that everybody knows what we have. it was a pass & crash situation, so we’d only be shooting if it was in the bonus.
That end this post on how to officiate restricted area plays in NCAA women’s basketball.
