hoops parallel

i'm no basketball player, but the last few winters i have played a little intramural hoops at a pretty low level. this year i'm on a team composed of some guys who played in high school and then me. my job is generally to play defense, get rebounds and pass to the guys who are going to score. there are referees, which makes it a much different game than the occasional pick-up basketball i play.

anyway, last week i had a bit of a run-in with one of our opponents. (i should preface the story by noting that since i never played organized hoops, i'm generally unaware of the etiquitte of basketball.) it was the second half, and our team was on a bit of a run. the other team was getting a little tired and i would say they were about to lose their grasp and go from "we have a chance" to "this game is over". i pulled down a defensive rebound and my opponent took a poke at the ball. i gripped it hard and shielded it by turning away from him and looking for an outlet pass. he took another swipe, and then reached around, eventually with both arms, nearly hugging me in an attempt to strip the ball. the referees, who are far from skilled (although they try hard), were slow on the whistle, so i started moving in what could best be describes as a squirm in an attempt to shake him. of course, it was a bit of an agressive squirm as i got my elbows out to help clear a little space. well, the whistle came, but my defender took exception, and we squared off for a moment before the ref and teammates stepped in.

as we went down court i asked him what his problem was and he said something along the lines of "i was just trying to foul you to stop the momentum and give us a rest". at which point i realized what he was doing was not really malicious at all. by the end of the game i had apologized and told him i just wasn't ready for that.

this got me to thinking about foul limits in ultimate. here i was in what could best be described as a "friendly" game of hoops, but the intentional foul was already present. if this were ultimate, would it be a good idea to use the fouls? maybe when your guy is throwing a short pass to an unmarked receiver? would that be "bad spirit"? certainly, as the game presently works, that would be a gross violation of what's accepted, but if there were refs, it might become perfectly acceptable to play the man in that situation.

i'm not sure i'd be ready to deal with that, but it might not take long to change the mentality. maybe, more importantly, the rules aren't set up to handle a situation like that, as there is really no disadvantage to the marker. if there were a more severe penalty for the foul, maybe it sould become an acceptable tactic.