THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: The arc of the block/charge call in high school ball

Here's a radical basketball thought — something that might come up over, say, a cup of coffee with a friend ...

What if referees didn't call the block/charge in high school basketball?

Just didn't call it.

It's not a charge, and it's not a block.

It's just a "play on."

Get up.

"Do you want to see them run over each other?" laughed John Posnick, longtime basketball official, who as commissioner of District 1, assigns officials to games. "I’d think you’d see the offensive guys go right to the basket, just plowing through guys — coaches mad, players mad and parents mad."

Two things would happen if the block/charge was eliminated, Post Falls High boys basketball coach Mike McLean said.

"I think you’d see a lot less kids get undercut, and potentially injured," he said. "I think in high school, kids are sliding under. I think at the high school level, I’m not against the block/charge, I think we could do OK without it, but I really think it’s a dangerous play, especially when kids slide in underneath the basket when a kid’s taken off. I think it’s dangerous. A lot of high school officials, in my opinion, reward kids for taking a charge, but actually, that’s a really bad defensive position."

"I wouldn’t go for that," Lakeland boys basketball coach Dave Stockwell said. "You work so hard trying to get your kids to be tough enough to do it (take a charge), so why take the damn thing? Why step in and take the charge if you’re not going to get the call?"

"I don’t know if you could get away with it not being called, but a lot of them don’t need to be called," Lake City boys basketball coach Jim Winger said. "If it wasn’t called, I’m sure teams would stop trying to take charges, because it wouldn’t do you any good."

The fear of drawing a charge can help force players to play under control, said Lakeland athletic director Mike Divilbiss, a former women's basketball coach.

"We had a charge call against us — from behind the board," he said of a recent Lakeland game. "The defender was behind the board. I didn’t really care for that one, but I also think kids need to be under control. Teach a kid how to know when to jump-stop, and when they can shoot a running layin. That’s important to be able to make that read in the middle of a game, having the skill set to be able to do both things, I think, is a part of coaching. I think you’re entitled to your space on the floor defensively, and I think players need to be taught how to play under control, and be able to do both things."

"As a defensive-minded coach, I’m always looking for kids who will step in when teams try to penetrate, kids who are willing to step in and sacrifice and take a charge," Coeur d'Alene boys coach Jon Adams said. "It really plays with offensive teams when those guys are willing to step in and take those charges."

OK, so maybe you couldn't just eliminate the whole play. But maybe you could modify it.

And one way, most coaches say, is to put in the block/charge arc under the basket in high school ball. The pros and colleges use it, but not high school.

The arc extends to a radius of 4 feet from the basket. If the defender's feet are completely inside the arc, it's supposed to be an automatic block. Otherwise, it can be a charge.

"I think it would be the best thing we could do," McLean said. "If you’re standing under the basket, that’s a bad defensive position. But you reward kids, because the reality is, the offensive kid that’s going to the rim, he’s letting that go … and probably the traditionalists say, ‘Oh, that’s a good hustle play.’ I think it’s a really dangerous play. If someone’s going to the rim, and there’s contact up high, and someone coming underneath you … you see a lot of rolled ankles, and hurt wrists."

"That (the arc) would help immensely, help the referees — if their feet were outside the circle, you got yourself a charge; if you got your feet inside the circle, you got yourself a block," Stockwell said. "There’s a lot of referees that will still call that charge when the defender is standing under the rim, and that’s not fair, because you know that kid took off long before that."

"The arc seems to work pretty good in college, but that just adds another thing the referee has to try to figure out, so that makes it really hard on them," Winger said. "Personally, I would be for (an arc). I don’t see how it would hurt."

Posnick agrees that's just one more thing for a ref to watch in a game where athletes continually get bigger, faster, stronger. But he figures the arc will eventually trickle down to the high school level — much like other rules changes have.

"We basically teach 'em to referee the defense — anticipate there’s probably going to be a wreck, but don’t anticipate the call," Posnick said. "But the defender tells you whether he’s to his established position or not. If he gets to that spot first, he’s entitled to that spot, before the guy gets airborne.

"The arc is only for the secondary defender," Posnick added. "If it’s the main defender, it could be a player control foul but if it’s a secondary defender … help out defense, that’s when it’s an automatic block, when there’s a wreck there — no matter if the guy has moss on his feet (from being there so long)."

Divilbiss formerly coached college women's basketball at a few stops, including Lewis-Clark State College and Idaho. He coached there before the arc went in, and coached there after the arc went in.

Did it change much?

"Not really," he said. "A little bit, maybe. A lot less than people thought it was going to. People thought it was going to change the game a lot, and the help side would never be able to get over there quick enough. But if you’re sound defensively, most of the time you get outside that circle anyway."

Posnick said adding the arc would change the high school game, "because there would probably be more blocks; right now, if that secondary defender slides over there, and the guy beats his man, a lot of times he doesn’t even see that secondary defender, so he plows into him, and it’s a player control foul. Now, it would change it; now that makes it a block. There would be more blocks that way. Right now, in high school, you’ll see more player control fouls because of that secondary defender coming in."

SO THERE you have it.

Maybe an arc would help in high school.

Maybe not.

"I still think you still have to have some block/charges — I mean, you can’t become a running back," McLean said. "The defense is already at a disadvantage in basketball. I’m not saying get rid of it, I’m saying … if he’s inside the cylinder … that just drives me crazy. You’re just rewarding bad defense."

"I don’t know … it’s one of those unsolvable problems," Winger said of the whole block/charge scenario.

But it's interesting to at least talk about it — over a beverage.

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @CdAPressSports.