Focus on Fouls

Twas ever thus. There is, was and always will be, at most games a red-faced supporter screaming 'look at the foul count' as if it is supposed to be even.

You're right that lobsided foul counts are more often than not a result of tactics than anything else, but when you're team is on the wrong end of it, it's far easier to scream at the ref than to say 'you know what, the fact they're sitting in a zone and we're jacking up shots, whilst we're in a man and they're attacking the basket with faster, more agile players and our help defence is very slow on rotation which are the reasons the foul count is so unbalanced at the moment, I'm sure if the teams approached things in different ways it might even up a bit'....it also takes away some of the fun of being a supporter. Screaming at the refs is one of the reasons people like to go to sports.

The one thing I would say is having a deeper bench doesn't mean you should commit more fouls (although you could), less fatigue should mean less mental lapses and fewer fouls I'd say. I don't agree with all your points, but the sentiment is fair enough

What pee's off a lot of fans is lack of consistency between the 3 ref's

How many times has one ref called a foul or violation at one end of the court,
then the same thing happens minutes later at the other end an a different ref doesn't call it.

As a fan it can be quite frustrating at times.

err !! ... just don't get me started on 'make up' calls. 

Although 2NFR when fans talk about 'consistency' often they mean they want all the calls to consistently go there own way!!! Lets be fair most fans have a visual bias towards their own team, we see fouls for our team far more readily than against us.

I have been at games where I wasn't supporting either team with perfectly knowledgeable and rational people who were supporting one of them. They've gone nuts over what seemed to the neutral eye to be perfectly good calls, I just laughed and said 'that was the right call though, you know that don't you?' But that is part of the game, we all do it to lesser or greater degrees. And not every fan is perfectly knowledgeable and rational!!!

Like I said shouting at the ref is part of sports because we're vested in the outcome, but just because we're doing it doesn't necessarily mean they've made a bad call, just one we didn't like. Sometimes the refs do make bad calls, but far fewer than the average fan would have you believe.

I don't get upset by many calls at games although the people I sit with usually do. Perhaps it was because I used to referee at a local league level and most of the time the calls they are getting irate about are perfectly good.

Fans who annoy me are those who have never looked at the rules and regulations and still think they know every call in the book. Trust me, you don't.

But the worst fans are those whose players can do no wrong, ever!! Yet when they come back to their old team they are dirtiest players around! hahaha!!!