If you were put in charge of college basketball, what’s one on-court rule that you would change/add and why?
MORE: Read through all the Burning Questions here
Rob Dauster: Man, where do I even start? First of all, let’s make it a 30-second shot clock. There’s no reason that men’s college basketball should be different from every other level of the sport. That’s foolish. Next, I’d move the charge circle out farther from the rim and go back to the rules that we had last season. Allowing a defender to slide underneath a player that’s in the air to take a charge is a scourge on our game. The next thing I’d do is limit the TV timeouts. There are NINE TV timeouts during a college basketball game, which is about five too many. It destroys the flow of games. We’re approaching the NFL’s extra point-commercial-kickoff-commercial ridiculousness.
That whole you can pump fake and jump into a player that’s already in the air to draw a foul move? Gone. Flagrant fouls for unintentional elbows? Gone. (I understand the need to protect players, but if you don’t want to get bowed in the face, don’t stick your face into a defender’s chest.) Extended reviews for anything? No. I’d also prevent coaches from being able to gather their team during reviews. No huddles.
Raphielle Johnson: Give me a 30-second shot clock, and that isn’t about the thought that such a move would automatically speed up the game either because that’s not a given. Women’s college basketball uses the 30-second clock, and FIBA amateur competitions use a 24-second clock. College basketball can’t just shave off five seconds? I find it to be a joke personally, so drop down to 30 seconds across the board. And I’m not buying the excuse that it will be “difficult” for players to adjust either. They, and the coaches entrusted with the task of teaching them, will adjust.
Scott Phillips: Too many timeouts. It’s one of the biggest complaints I hear about college basketball. During televised games we now have to sit through eight TV timeouts and each team also has five timeouts of their own. The first team timeout in the second half also turns into a fifth TV timeout in the second half. Great, more commercials…
That means a ridiculous 18 potential stoppages per game for coaches to draw up plays in a 40-minute period. That’s way too much.
I understand the need to generate revenue and it’s silly to ask for a change with that, but why not reduce the number of timeouts that coaches can use so that we speed up games and reduce stoppages?
Make coaches prepare their players more before games or have them figure out another way to convey things with them, but let’s eliminate so many stoppages that are killing the flow of the game.
Terrence Payne: I was originally going to go with changing the 35-second shot clock. To me it makes no sense why it’s the longest in organized basketball (even longer than states that use shot clocks in high school), but seeing as it’s been touched on above, let’s go with the “hanging on the rim” technical. Look I get it, those plays happen in real time and officials instinctually blow the whistle and asses the technical. But in most cases players are racing down the floor with their weight carrying them forward. Holding onto the rim is a protective measure from what could be a serious injury. Need a reference on this: watch Kendall Pollard’s technical in the first half of the Dayton-UConn game Friday afternoon.
