The loose ball / jump ball thing has just been getting worse and worse over time. It's becoming a free for all, and the refs don't seem to know what to do. However, just like they have put the chop block, targeting, and "leading with the helmet" rules in football for safety reasons (although they should bag the stupid "celebration" especially-if-your-BYU penealty), they absolutely need to do something similar for basketball and the loose ball brawls. Not only is it dangerous as players leap into the pile with reckless abandon to show they will get down and dirty, but is also a common source of very real brawls as players getting mauled take issue, and near fights often ensue with tempers near the surface.

I'm all for playing hard, but this is a clear safety issue, and I hope it doesn't take some player getting seriously injured for the league to do something preemptively about it. It would be easy to do - make an announcement pre-season about how the rule would be enforced differently, freeing up the refs to then call it differently, rather than just waiting until the scrum is over, and then putting two inevitable thumbs up sign. Then, the refs should simply start consistently calling fouls for hitting another player, leading with the head, stepping on a player (how did that ever become legal), jumping on the pile, or any other manhandling that would otherwise be considered a clear foul whether OR NOT the player actually has the ball. Position means something in basketball, as it should, such as when a player has position for a rebound, and another player jumps over his back to get the ball, it is a foul, although very poorly and inconsistently called by the refs (unless your KC against Ole Miss). Likewise, if a player has position for a loose ball, other players should not be allowed to foul him in order to get possession. If a player with superior speed or vision gets position without fouling, then he deserves the ball. Otherwise, he does not, just because he's willing to sacrifice the body - his and the other player's. Simply calling this properly would likely save a lot of injuries, and possibly fights also.