As average scoring in college basketball dipped to 67.6 points per game — near an all-time low for the sport — it became glowingly clear: Something needed to change to improve the game.
On Friday, the NCAA Men's Basketball Rules Committee approved a group of proposals with hopes of improving pace of play, achieving better offense and defensive balance and decreasing physicality in the sport.
“The committee has taken significant steps to reverse the trends in the sport that are concerning to the men’s college basketball world,” head coach at Belmont and chair of the rules committee Rick Byrd said on a conference call. “We have spent the past year collecting data, opinions and considering proposals that will help our game. Our anticipation is that dedicated officiating enforcement, along with this package of changes, will help balance the offense and defense in our game.”
The following is a breakdown of some of the proposed rule changes.
- Restricted area arc: The committee proposed a rule to expand the restricted arc underneath the basket from 3 feet to 4 feet.
- Pace of play: The committee proposed a decrease in the shot clock — from 35 to 30 seconds. It also proposed to eliminate one timeout per game from each team.
- Player fouls: The committee also proposed player's getting a sixth foul.
- The full list of rules proposals can be seen here.
All of these proposed rule changes must be approved by the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel on June 8.
The thought process behind some of these rules is pretty simple.
Increasing the size of the restricted arc would eliminate some contact at or around the basket. The rules committee also proposed a rule which would allow more freedom of movement and eliminate the bumping of cutters through the lane. The idea here is to allow the game to move at a freer pace.
Reducing the shot clock also allows the game to be played faster. The goal is to get teams into their offensive sets quicker and will allow for more possessions throughout the course of a game. More possessions usually equal more points. Reducing a timeout hopefully eliminates the college basketball games which take 20 minutes to play the final two minutes of game action. There are eight media timeouts in college basketball as it stands, coaches don't need five additional timeouts.
Adding a sixth foul works two fold. It allows the officials to strictly crack down on the physicality of a game without hurting the end result. And, adding an additional fouls allows for teams to keep their best players on the court longer.
"It's not about fouling out," Michigan State coach Tom Izzo told Nicole Auerbach of USA TODAY Sports on Friday. "It's about how different you play with two fouls in the first half, or three fouls at the start of the second half. … I am in favor of keeping the best players on the floor. I think this is great."
Ohio State head coach Thad Matta also expressed his interest in lowering the shot clock and adding a sixth foul when asked about potential changes to college basketball's rules this past season.
“I’ve always been an advocate of the shot clock going to 30 seconds. I would love to see that. I said that back when I first got here and we were playing Northwestern and Wisconsin and I’m saying, ‘Come on, I’m too impatient for this,’" Matta said on March 3, prior to Ohio State's game at Penn State. "The one I’ve always said is I’d like to see like the NBA, give them six fouls. Keep the best players on the floor, coaches are a little bit different, but you take a player out when he has two in the first half, that sort of thing.”
Friday's proposed rule changes are certainly a step in the right direction toward fixing the overall quality of college basketball. It's about time.
