NCAA changes block-charge rule for 2014 season

By Kels Dayton
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Updated: May 11, 2013

If you watched the NCAA Tournament this past March, you noticed a whole lot of this:

This controversial call probably would have been a block under the new NCAA rules. (Getty Images)

A referee standing with one hand behind his head, another pointing forward and taking the play the other way. It was annoying, disruptive and downright un-American.

The charge was becoming an epidemic in college basketball, but Wednesday the rules committee took steps to make it a a little less common.

According to a report from ESPN’s Andy Katz, officials will now be advised to call a block instead of a charge when a defensive player moves into the offensive player’s space once he starts his upward motion with the ball.

The new wording of the rule likely would have swung a lot of block-charge calls the other way, perhaps including the charge call on Syracuse’s Brandon Triche late in the National Semifinals against Michigan. That call is now infamous in upstate New York.

In the past, officials had to judge whether or not the defender was in front of the offensive player with his two feet down and facing the offensive player. They also had to determine if the offensive player had left the court before the defensive player was set.

Now, defensive players wont’ able to slide into place and draw charges as easily.

“We think this will allow the official to make the call correctly and perhaps increase the scoring,” Big East officiating coordinator Art Hyland told ESPN.com. “If you call a charge then the ball is taken away. If it’s a block then the player gets to the line or could convert a three-point play. If that happens two or three times a game that’s seven or eight points more in a game.”