I coach my 10 year old son's team and the following occurred today. The other team ran a play called orange. The point guard would have the ball at the top of the key and the rest of the team would clear out to the left side of the floor outside of the lane. The pg would then play one on one with my defender on the whole right side of the floor. If my player got beat, it was a layup. To try to slow it down I told my players not to chase their man all the way to the left. Our league only allows man to man so the other coach loudly accused me of playing zone. Two of my players were in the middle of the lane about 10 feet from their man. The referee told me that they had to be within 6 feet of their man. My argument was that they were in help pisition. After the game, I went over to the refs and they agreed that the play was a blatant exploitation of the rules. I don't know if I could have defended the play any other way. Thoughts?

The only idea I have is to send one of the help defenders to double team the PG. Not sure if that violates the rules?

The 6 foot rule sounds like a dumb rule. Even in normal situations, the help defense often needs to be more than 6 feet from the player. If the ball is in the corner and your man is in the other corner, you need to be about 15 feet away.

What about when you leave your man to help? You have to be more than 6 feet.

I think the intentions are right... probably trying to keep teams from playing zones. But someone in the league might need to rethink the rules.

Beyond that, don't worry. If it's one team that takes advantage of the rules... oh well. Maybe bring it up with the league director.

Sorry I forgot to include the part that double teams are also illegal. You can help if a teammate gets beat clearly but must get back to your man when your teammate recovers.

I did email the league director after the game and I'm awaiting a response.

If they ran the play a couple of times in a game, I wouldn't worry about it. If they kept calling the play over and over, that defeats the point of rec league ball. It also exploits the rules as the coach running the play knows you can't have true helpside defense. I wouldn't get too worried about it. Again, if the coach ran the play A LOT, the play itself exposes the coach as someone not interested in the true spirit of rec league ball.

I remember back in 1st/2nd grade, we had colored wrist bands so the kids would know who to guard. We'd match them up according to playing level as best we could, so red guarded red and so on. Sure enough, I'd always run into "that coach" who would switch the bands after we'd matched up putting one of his obviously better players on one of my obviously weaker ones. So, I'd go back on the court and switch again to match up skill levels.