Not all contact needs a whistle even if everyone else thinks so. Let's discuss Incidental Contact.

This is Rule Review and our coverage on plays involving incidental contact. This video is dedicated to educating basketball officials on the proper way to rule on contact that may not constitute a foul. Watching actual videos of plays involving incidental contact, along with some basic instruction explaining each rule, helps officials learn faster and retain rule information better. We can all learn together by continually discussing the rules as they are written in the NFHS rules book and viewing actual high school basketball games reinforces that learning.

Unfortunately, many times officials will blow their whistle to stop play when contact occurs, however, the NFHS rules book tells us not all contact constitutes a foul and should be ruled as incidental contact. This is what we will be reviewing in this segment of Rule Review. And remember, all video clips we reference to highlight incidental contact are from high school games and focus solely on the NFHS high school rules book.

Video #1
A dribbler drives to the basket along the endline and in the process hits his defender in the face with his elbow. No whistle was blown by any of the officials. This is because, the dribbler and defender both performed normal offensive and defensive actions and neither did anything illegal. They both simply moved toward the same location at the same time and some incidental contact occurred.
Video #2
On a throw-in at the endline, two players run toward a passed ball and end up getting the feet tangled up and falling down. Don’t believe the philosophy of two bodies on the floor needs a whistle on this play. Since both players are in equally favorable positions to get to the ball, and neither are being hindered of performing their normal offensive or defensive actions, the contact that occurs, causing them to fall down should be ruled incidental contact.
Video #3
After a long pass to a teammate in the frontcourt, a defender bumps into and displaces the ball handler and again, no whistle from the officials. This is because the contact is incidental and even though it was hard enough to displace the ball handler, it did not hinder his ability to continue the dribbling action he intended all along.
Video #4
With an offensive screen set at the top of the key, the defender of the dribbler runs into and knocks both him and the screener to the floor with the officials calling a foul on the defender. But wait, the screen was set outside of the visual field of the defender and contact was inadvertent. This play should have been ruled as incidental contact. Remember, contact can even be severe and still be considered incidental contact.

Watching video clips is a good way to stay connected to the skill of officiating basketball but true education and learning can more effectively be attained when each video is annotated with diagrams and shading to point out key teaching points.

The Officials Institute, and the Rule Review segment, creates videos that don't leave you guessing about whether there was a foul, violation or not. Even though we cannot officiate in slow motion or freeze frames, by watching and reviewing video video in this fashion, we are able to "retrain our brain" so we can start seeing plays more accurately when we do see them in real time and increase our ability to get the call right.

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All rules referenced in this video are taken from the official rules book provided by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS). To find out more about the NFHS, you can visit them at https://nfhs.org/