So UConn kids never fall down on their way to the hoop or fling the ball up as they are being hit. First of all, watch our game against Baylor again and then try to figure out how much the "flopping" affected the game. Not close to what the fevered imagination thinks. If someone really thinks our schemes on O or D were affected greatly by Baylor "flopping", they are plainly silly. Our bad shooting kept the margin down. Baylor scored three dozen points less than they normally do. And real "flopping" occurs overwhelmingly on D. You know why? Because if you truly flop on O more bad things can happen than good if you don't sell the "flop" and obviously worse if you also don't make the hoop. You've probably turned the ball over, given the other team a fast break and other stuff the coach doesn't like. By your definition of flopping, Tiff Hayes was a champion flopper since a lot of her falls were on aggressive attacks to the basket. I suppose only the other team fakes it and we never do.
Moreover, a true "flop" implies there was no contact at all, at worst, slight (as opposed to a ref getting a charge/block call wrong as happened in the 3rd Dolson foul vs. Baylor). When someone is attacking the basket and falls, it's way more often than not because they are either actually bumped, or because they've gotten themselves off balance and fall. It's up to the refs to make the right call. I'll also warrant you that kids you see tumble underneath playing against our front line don't all that often face such aggressive height under the hoop. It's pretty hard to outright flop on O because it's too easy to see a player with the ball fall without contact. As for jump shooters "flopping", about the only way I know for a jump shooter to sell a true flop to an official is to do what our defenders did that resulted in Sims 2 sets of 3 point fouls. A belated rush at the shooter where the defender's momentum is moving forward and it always looks like a foul or it really does cause the shooter to fall backward making it look even more like a foul. It is rare as heck for a "flop" induced foul to be called on someone defending a jump shooter who isn't moving forward at the shooter and even harder for the shooter to flop reflexively in that case than it is for a defensive "flopper". Most, even lousy, refs are actually pretty good at requiring real contact on a foul. I think more errors are made by refs on blocked shots that they think were fouls than they do in calling fouls where there was no contact and a player falls. I yield now to your expertise.
