Watching from a radio booth high above the Augusta Civic Center floor, T.J. Halliday watches officials work during a 2024 Class A North boys’ basketball tournament game. Halliday coordinates basketball officials in Maine. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

If you’ve watched any level of basketball for more than a few minutes, you’ve seen it. A defender gets in position to block a player’s path to the basket. With the slightest bit of contact, the defender is knocked backward like a stuntman, arms extended as if they’re reaching for an invisible railing. They fly backward as if they’re being pulled by a force beyond the baseline. Is this court haunted?

You’ve seen this, too. A player has possession of the basketball. Maybe they’re in the low post, looking to either make a move to take a shot, or they’re at the top of the key, looking to find an open teammate cutting to the basket. A defender raises an arm, maybe gets close to the ball controller’s face, and suddenly their head snaps back as if a swarm of wasps just buzzed by.

A new rule is in place this high school basketball season that looks to curb that behavior. When an official determines a player has faked being fouled, a warning will be issued to the team. If it happens again, a team technical foul will be assessed.

“Often, it’s just a head bob,” said TJ Halliday, an official for more than three decades who now serves as the state rules interpreter and handles rule changes for the IAABO (International Association of Approved Basketball Officials).

Anthony Amero, the longtime boys’ basketball coach at Forest Hills in Jackman, likened flipping of the head when closely guarded to a “European soccer move.”

“I have seen that on numerous occasions, and they should work to take that out of the game,” Amero said. “To me, flopping while trying to take a charge was down last year.”

Flopping has been a point of emphasis before, with a technical foul assessed to the guilty player as he or she picked themselves off the court. Enforcement of that punishment has been sporadic at best, however. The last time I can recall seeing it was in a tournament game at the Bangor Auditorium in 2012 – the last season the tournament was played there before the place was bulldozed in favor of the modern Cross Insurance Center.

Dave Halligan, the longtime boys’ basketball coach at Falmouth High, doesn’t think the new rule will amount to much. He said it’s too subjective and could open a can of worms as far as what’s called a block, a charge or a flop. Halligan would rather see high school basketball implement a restricted area underneath the hoop. That’s the 4-foot arc on the court under the basket in college and pro games. In that area, a defensive player cannot draw a charge. It’s in place to prevent defenders from setting up shop under the basket while offensive players drive to the basket.

“I don’t think (the new rule is) going to fix anything,” Halligan said of the new rule.

Another new rule that fans may notice this season is the 20 seconds allotted for players to cover a cut or remove blood from their body. In the past, the player had to leave the game. Now, it’s a race against the clock.

“Can you get a band aid on there or get it wrapped?” Halliday said.

One rule not coming to Maine any time soon? The shot clock. According to the National Federation of State High School Associations, 28 states will use a shot clock this season. In Maine, the shot clock is still considered a luxury item that most schools simply can’t afford. It’s heated seats in your car. Very nice, but it doesn’t make the thing run better.

Most shot clocks range in price from $2,300 to $4,100, before installation. Then there’s the matter of paying somebody to operate it, at a time when a lot of schools struggle to find somebody to run the game clock.

“I agree that it’s a luxury we just cannot afford at this time. Our school has seen large cuts in funding. So funding something new would be a challenge,” Amero said. “I do not see teams running the four corners passing stall game. Once in a great while you will see someone try to dictate tempo, but when was the last time you saw a big tournament win because someone played stall ball? Usually, the better team can go to trap defense and end that issue pretty quick.”

Halliday said the issue of a shot clock has come up frequently in recent years to the MPA basketball committee, and there’s simply not enough support for it. Generally, big schools favor it and smaller school are against the shot clock, Halliday said, with the cost being the biggest hurdle.

Fans who think adding a shot clock would increase scoring in Maine high school games should think again. It’s a placebo. A look at scores from Maine state championship games in recent years shows final scores similar to those in states that use the shot clock, like Massachusetts and New York. Most Maine high school basketball possessions take significantly less time than what a shot clock set for 35 seconds would allot, Halliday said.

If anything, Halliday said, a shot clock would change strategy at the end of close games. A team down by three points with a minute to play would be more likely to try to get a defensive stop than foul to send the opponent to the free-throw line. In that regard, a shot clock might increase the end-of-game tension.

The worst argument used by those in favor of the shot clock is it would prepare Maine basketball players for the next level. That’s such a straw-man argument that it asked the Wizard of Oz for a brain. High school basketball is not now, nor ever has been about developing players for the next level. It’s about competing with your friends for your school. Ask the numerous Maine athletes who went on to successful college basketball careers at any level if they felt unprepared because they had to adjust to a shot clock. It’s a bogus argument.