College basketball has become "unwatchable," "awful" and "ugly." The pace of the games is too slow. There are too many timeouts. They take too long. The games are too physical …
At least that is what national pundits, coaches and many fans of the game have said in recent years. As a result, the NCAA has developed sweeping rules changes to try and improve the flow and length of games. In total, there are 25 new rules being implemented this year, and nearly all are aimed at increasing scoring and the pace of games.
The most tangible change is the shot clock will be cut to 30 seconds from 35 seconds, in hopes it creates a faster pace, more possessions and more scoring.
There are other changes: Coaches will have one less timeout (four instead of five); coaches can't call live-ball timeouts; substitution breaks have been shortened, and a coach-called timeout will also become a commercial break if it occurs within 30 seconds of a scheduled break.
And, just to add a little more excitement, players can now dunk during pregame warm-ups.
In addition to the new rule changes, officials have been asked to strictly enforce preexisting rules meant to limit physical play, such as limits on hand-checking, and most coaches believe that will have a greater impact than any of the new rules implemented by the NCAA.
"There are some visible changes that will be easy for people to see," said Paul Brazeau, senior associate commissioner with the ACC and a member of the national basketball oversight committee. "All of it is good, but it really comes down to, 'Can we enforce these things?' I mean, you can put a 50 MPH speed limit sign out on the road and, if it isn't enforced, it is meaningless.
"So, really, in the beginning of the season, there will be some pain with all the foul calls, but we have to get the behaviors of the defenders to change. We have to have the stomach to withstand the noise and the complaints, but everybody is on board that we have to do this now or we will continue to watch our game suffer."
Hand-checking has been a point of emphasis for the past several seasons, but after strictly enforcing the rules early in the season, officials reverted to a less-strict interpretation, which led to more physical games.
This year, however, the national basketball oversight committee has said officials who don't comply will be penalized.
"I have never seen a stronger mandate for something," Notre Dame coach Mike Brey said. "It was always a point of emphasis, but now it is a mandate that if you are one of those old veteran officials who is going to say, 'Look this is how I'm gonna call it in league play,' well, you are not going to get to ref in the NCAA Tournament."
But while most coaches agree the points of emphasis will have a big impact, there is some debate how much the shorter shot clock will change the game.
Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said the shorter shot clock will force teams to start running their offensive plays quicker, which means players won't take their time walking the ball up the court.
"I don't know that (30-second shot clock) will help scoring, but I think it will be better for the game," Dixon said. "I know the thought is for more scoring, that may or may not happen, but I think it will be a better game to watch because I don't think there will be the guy out there holding the ball every possession."
Dixon said more teams will play zone defense, which takes longer to attack, and some might use more backcourt pressure so teams waste more time getting the ball across the half-court line.
Virginia coach Tony Bennett, whose team is notoriously deliberate on offense, said he is OK with the 30-second clock, but he doesn't want to see it go down to 24 seconds, as is the case in the NBA, because that would change the way the college game is played.
"I wouldn't be a proponent of it going to 24. Having played in the NBA, I think that's a different animal," Bennett said. "That's about being able to create your own shot and a lot of isolation and one-on-one play. I don't know if the college game is quite ready for that."
One fear among some coaches, like Florida State's Leonard Hamilton and Virginia Tech's Buzz Williams, is that all the changes will make the game begin to mirror the NBA too much.
"It is hard to pull out one of the rule changes and say 'that one will have the most impact,' but the combination of them all will completely change the game," Williams said. " … Coaches and players will now be coaching and playing a completely different game, and I think it definitely trends towards the teams with the best players winning more."
Williams said he doesn't believe there is enough data to support the changes, especially to the shot clock, saying the new rules seem like a knee-jerk reaction to the criticism of the way the college game is played.
Hall of fame Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim doesn't believe the changes will hurt the game, and he bases his opinion on his experience coaching at the international level.
"(Coaches who say there will be more zone played) are not very smart, don't listen to them," Boeheim said. "Five seconds? I mean, the longest team in the ACC last year was like 17 seconds to get a shot and most teams took about 15 seconds to get a shot. And, to be honest, teams that play faster, they hurt our zone -- teams that play slow, in general, we beat …
"And teams that think they need to use the whole shot clock to beat teams with more talent, well guess what, they lose every one of those games."
Brazeau said no system is going to be perfect, but these are steps in the right direction and the quicker coaches, players and officials buy in, the quicker they will have a positive impact.
"Like I said, there will be some pain early," Brazeau said. "But, in the end, we should have a better product and a better game, and that's really what is at the heart of all of this."
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