I've been watching sports on TV and apparently there is no solution to the problem of fouling intentionally at the end of basketball games. I'm referring to the situation where the team with the ball is ahead by a few points, a minute or so to play, and the trailing team, in order to "extend the game," fouls on purpose. This way they can get the ball back without any time running off. If the leading team misses a free throw, the trailing team can cut into the lead by scoring a basket before fouling again. The possibility of making a 3-point basket means you can cut into the lead even if the other team makes two free throws. One team tries to make foul shots, the other team tries to make 3-point baskets. Foul shots are easier but only count 1 point.
Games thus descend into the realm of farce. For 39 minutes, the teams compete at "basketball," and then for the last minute the one that's earned a lead has to prove its worthiness by playing some different, chintzier game. It's as if after 71 holes at St. Andrews a golfer trailing the leader by a stroke or two could, by fiat, compel the guy with the lead to play the 72nd hole at a nearby mini course where, to demonstrate he's a worthy British Open champion, he must putt the ball through a tunnel guarded by the blades of a turning windmill.
The very worst situation occasionally arises from the fact that, for example in college games, the first six team fouls in a half don't result in free throws: unless the fouled player was attempting a shot, her (or his) team just keeps the ball. This means that, at the end of the game, a trailing team might very well be punished for not having fouled enough. In order to get the ball back, they have to commit, intentionally and as quickly as possible, their fourth, fifth, sixth, and finally seventh team fouls as the game's remaining seconds dwindle. They'd have had a chance if only they'd fouled more back when they didn't know they were going to be behind by 4 points in the last minute. What kind of arrangement is that?
I'm not sure I have a solution but it annoys me that the rules committees evidently don't, either. Maybe the farcical situation should allow for arguably half farcical solutions. When the trailing team commits a common foul in the last minute of the game, there could be, in addition to free throws, a ten second run off the clock. The NFL does this when the team on offense is penalized for intentional grounding during the last two minutes of either half. Same idea. If you're going to "kill the clock" by "breaking rules," the clock by rule is going to run down.
Not that football has necessarily figured everything out. In last year's Gopher game at Iowa, we had the ball, around 10 seconds left in the first half, on about Iowa's 10-yard line. We passed into the end zone, incomplete—because of flagrant pass interference on their d-back. Penalty for that is automatic first down on the 2-yard line. But, since there's now only 4 seconds left in the half, that's hardly any penalty at all. By interfering, Iowa kept us from scoring a touchdown on the next-to-last play of the half. Now there was time for one more play, and we either had to try a field goal or risk getting no points at all. We kicked a field goal. Pass interference on Iowa, 4 fewer points for Minnesota. Iowa ended up winning the game, 23-19.
If an offensive penalty toward the end of a half can result in a 10-second runoff, how about a defensive penalty in their own end zone resulting in 10 seconds added to the clock? Perhaps at the discretion of the offense. If they want 10 more seconds, they can have them, but they can also decline that part of the penalty.
Next I'm going to devise an apt penalty for Trump and his enablers in the Republican party. Something worse, but more subtle, than the Lake of Fire.
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