NCAA rule change meeting

By Kyle Richardson

PLATTSBURGH—Over the summer of 2015, the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel meet and approved a collection of proposals and areas of focus in men's and women's basketball for the upcoming season. Officials will be looking to improve the pace of play, a more balanced offence, and a reduced physical aspect to the game.

            The main areas that will be changing are shot-clock changes, perimeter defense play, physicality in post play, moving screens and freedom of movement for off-ball players. 

            Officials are being told to emphasize no hands when defenders are playing perimeter defense.  Defenders are expected to move their feet more instead of using hands to keep who they are defending in front of them. This change is concerning for some coaches.

“I feel this is great for ball handlers however, not every official calls fouls the same way so one game officials may let guys play and another game refs will all every hand check. That slows down the pace of the game,” said Plattsburgh Men's Basketball assistant coach Derrick Denteh.

Post play is another key change the NCAA made for this season. Defenders can be more physical in the post and can now use an arm-bar when getting backed down in the post. This change was enforced in efforts to evening the playing field for defenders. 

“The arm bar was a great change in my opinion, it allows post defenders to use our strength more efficiently in the paint and doesn't give offensive players the advantage,” said Majestic Griggs, center for Plattsburgh State.

Another change in efforts to improve pace of play is the shot-clock change. The new shot-clock is 30 seconds instead of 35.  The last time the shot-clock was reduced was 1993 when it changed from 45 seconds to 35 seconds.

Denteh approved the change in shot-clock. “Being a team that likes to get out and run the floor, the change doesn't really affect, the biggest impact it has is on defence because we like to press and when we press, it gives the offense less time to set up offence.”

In the past, players were not allowed to dunk during warmups. If a player dunked and the refs saw, it was a technical foul and the opposing team would get two free throws prior to the start of the game. This season however, players are now allowed to dunk freely without penalty. 

“This change allows players to loosen up more during warmups and put on a little show for fans, however I see how some refs may not like it because you risk injury or breaking the rim before the game even starts,” said Shamoy McIntosh, student assistant coach pr Plattsburgh State.

In women's basketball, the biggest change was the switch to quarters instead of halves. Two 20 minute halves was the norm for college basketball; however now in women’s basketball, there are four 10 minute quarters. This change was endorsed by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association Board of Directors. Teams will now be in a two shoot bonus after the fifth foul in each quarter.

“It makes the game so much longer and more stop and go rather than consistent up and down play.  The biggest plus is the removal of media timeouts,” said Jalyn Brown, women’s basketball player at CW Post University. Media timeouts used to be called every four minutes and with the change to quarters, the media timeout was removed.

Ailayia Demand, point guard at Lemoyne College sees the change in a more positive way. “I think it give teams a chance to regroup after each quarter and evaluate the game rather than waiting until half time.”

  The NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel made these changes in efforts to improve the game. This year is a big experimental year and the panel will be evaluating how these changes affect the game.  

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