NTBOA

North Texas Basketball Officials Association (NTBOA)

The Chapter of Choice

Blarge

If you have never had a “blarge”, then you probably have not been officiating very long. A “blarge” refers to two officials calling two different fouls at the same time, specifically, a block and a charge. To properly break this rule down, let’s review what guarding is.

Rule 4.23.1 defines guarding as the act of legally placing the body in the path of an offensive opponent. There is no minimum distance required between the guard and opponent, but the maximum is 6 feet when closely guarded. Every player is entitled to a spot on the playing court provided such player gets there first without ¬illegally contacting an opponent. A player who extends an arm, shoulder, hip or leg into the path of an opponent is not considered to have a legal position if contact occurs.

Once contact occurs, to avoid a blarge, hold your preliminary signal as soon as you see another official blow their whistle. You can sound your whistle and stop the clock to signal a foul, but do not add the block or charge signal until you are confident your co-official has not signaled yet. This is something that takes discipline but you greatly increase your odds of getting this play correct and avoiding the blarge if you have a good pre-game to discuss primary and secondary coverage and specially how you are going to handle collisions.

An example of a blarge is when A1 drives for a try and jumps and releases the ball. Contact occurs between A1 and B1 after the release and before airborne shooter A1 returns one foot to the floor. One official calls a blocking foul on B1 and the other official calls a charging foul on A1. The try is (a) successful, or (b) not successful.

As much as we hate to admit it, most all of us have been involved in a blarge at some time. Too often officials in a game decide to pick either a block or a charge. However, that is not the correct way to administer this rule. Even though airborne shooter A1 committed a charging foul, it is not a player-control foul because the two fouls result in a double personal foul. The double foul does not cause the ball to become dead on the try. In (a), the goal is scored; play is resumed at the point of interruption, which is a throw-in for Team B from anywhere along the end line. In (b), the point of interruption is a try in flight; therefore the alternating-possession procedure is used.

Click here for Rule Book Reference 4.23.1

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