From: crs@stein.u.washington.edu (Cliff Slaughterbeck)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.basketball.college
Subject: Re: Picks and Screens, please???? Re: Biased Fans / Bad Refs
Date: 6 Jan 1993 23:39:50 GMT
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle
NNTP-Posting-Host: stein.u.washington.edu

marek@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Marek Lugowski) writes:

>Sensei Cliff Slaughterbecksan writes:
>
>>Welcome, Mr. Cheesehead, to Philosophy 101  Reality and Perception.  The 
>>syllabus before you will explain the topics to be covered this quarter:
>>
>>(A) Why people see what they want to see.
>>(B) Traveling.
>>(C) The three second call.
>>(D) The coaches box and technical fouls.
>>(E) Over and back--oh wait he wasn't over yet.  Yes he was!  No he wasn't...
>>(F) Shooting free throws (Guest Lecturer--The Shaq)
>>(G) Coaching fundamentals (Guest Lecturer--Lou Henson)
> (H) Pick.
> (I) Screens, legal and illegal.
>
>Items (H) and (I) pretty please?  What is a good pick?  What is an illegal
>screen?  Serious replies only...

A pick is what one does with the index finger and the nose.  It is judged
to be good by several qualities, including mass, volume, color, and
consistency.  ;-0   (Special note to Bob Dieckmann--see the uvula?)

A screen (or a pick) is when two players from the same team run past each
other in such a manner that the defender assigned to guard one of those players
has to go around the player setting the screen.  The rule for screens is
the same for that as the blocking/charging foul; namely that the player
(either offensive or defensive) who is occupying a space is entitled to it
and can't be run over willy-nilly.  (I don't know if the NCAA rulebook
uses the term "willy-nilly", but if they don't, they should.)  Thus, calls
on screens are that a screen is illegal if the player setting the screen
substantially alters his or her position while setting the screen in order
to make the defender run a longer distance to cover his or her assigned man.
Likewise, if the defender attempts to run through the screen, causing the
player who sets the screen to lose balance, then a foul should be called on
the defender.

There are several important terms above.  The first is "willy-nilly".  Really.
The rule does not prohibit contact from occuring, but does indicate that
running over somebody is against the rules.  The second phrase is 
"substatially alters".  Ear twitches are OK, but moving the feet or arms to
force the player around is not.

There are two common varieties of illegal screens that I can think of.  The
first is the "butt screen" that is common on pick and roll plays.  Here, a
defender is going around the top of the screen, and the screener sticks out
his or her gluteus maximus to make the defender take extra steps.  This is
a no-no, and falls under that "substantially alters" dictum.  The second is
the step-screen, where a defender "sets" a screen, and then tries to make
the screenee take even more steps by taking small steps to force an even
longer route around the screen.  A third type of illegal screen which is
not called as often is the shove-screen.  Here, the screener uses the arms
extended away from the body to knock guards out of the way.  I've only seen
this type of illegal screen called when it was actually hard enough to 
knock somebody to the floor, although it often happens under the basket.

>Count me in.  What about the e-Certificate of Fan Expertise, suitable for,
>um, mounting?

Let's see the 20 page paper first.

****************************************************************************
Cliff Slaughterbeck           * 
Dept. of Physics, FM-15       *   There is no such thing as "rock bottom".
University of Washington      *   
Seattle, WA 98195             *
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Newsgroups: rec.sport.basketball.college