If you could change some college basketball rules what would you change?

[Quazzum69]

Anything to make the game more fluid and less subjective like:

1) less stops in play due to mandated commercials

2) less fouls and less free throws. Free throws should be like penalty kicks in soccer - very infrequent and only for the most severe penalty. Make it harder to get to the line but more reward, like two or three points. A third of a team's points should never be from standing in a stationary position and throw the ball when no one is near you (which is very often a result of a subjective call from someone not even playing the game). The death of basketball will be from excessive free throws.

3) More incidental contact should be allowed. If you are 6-6 and 220 pounds, you should be able to take a slap on the wrist or a little body contact when you're driving to the basket - it is a contact sport after all. Leave it up to the players to enforce it themselves. If you are an Aaron Craft and slap away at your opponent, expect the other team to go after you hard. If you are an honorable opponent, than you have nothing to worry about.

4) Instead of increasing foul limits, get rid of them all together or change the system. What better way to invite corruption and bias into a game than giving a foul limit that eliminates players from the game based on subjective calls? If you foul someone, give them the ball at half court (perhaps no inbounding needed) and no foul is put onto a player unless it is with unnecessary force, etc. Give each player a two foul limit, then they are ejected.

 

[HarrisonJBounel]

My favorites mentioned so far in one form or another:
1) Shot clock to 30. It's not basketball to stand 5 feet inside half court and just wait 20 seconds before starting the play.
2) I like the "no timeouts while being guarded" concept. Teams should be rewarded for good defense.
3) The defense should not be allowed inside the lane during the free throw attempt until the shot is released. I hate the defensive huddles right in front of the shooter or substitutions bumping into the shooter (I'm looking at you, Georgetown). So cheap. Technical foul for violations.
4) I like limiting the inbounds passes to the halfcourt line once the team has crossed half court.
5) Make illegal screens a turnover, not a foul. Then CALL THEM!!!

Don't like:
1) FIBA inbounds rule. Uncivilized. Ref must check the ball.
2) FIBA goaltending rules. Uncivilized. Leave the ball alone and let gravity do its thing

Would like to see the results of experimentation with:
1) A higher rim.
2) Four on four, instead of five on five.
3) A really short shot clock, like 20 seconds. Maybe even 15.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

That UK can't pay for players. That would be a good start for the integrity of the game.

 

[Syracusian]

There's a lot of mixed opinions, but some common themes throughout the thread.

1. People seem like they want a shorter shot clock, and in my opinion, it'd be a really bad idea. Often times when I do watch an NBA game, teams really don't even have a chance to get into their offense before the shot clock is already at 10-12 seconds. By that time, if a double team comes, or if you lose control of the ball for a split second and have to regain yourself, you're almost looking at a rushed possession. If this was implemented into college basketball, where you're often dealing with people who aren't overly skilled/athletic like the NBA players are, you're obviously looking at terribly sloppy and rushed possessions. This would be even worse for teams that didn't have a go-to guy, because if there's 8-10-12 seconds on the shot clock in the NBA you can just give the ball to LeBron, Carmelo, etc. and let them go to work.

This would also really benefit teams that pressed you. You're looking at a terrible offensive possession if you're playing a team like Louisville or someone else who has a good press/on ball pressure, and you'd be able to get the ball across half court, and if you did successfully, you'd have ~15 seconds to start your possession in the half court. I know people suggesting 30, and I wouldn't have a terrible problem with that, but 24 seconds just seems like it's too low. The pros of having a short shot clock is obviously scoring since more shots would be going up, and for us, it'd be beneficial incase someone ran ~33 seconds off of the shot clock only to get an offensive rebound and/or get fouled and then run another ~33 seconds off of the clock.


2. It seems like people are bothered by the fact that they grant an additional 10 seconds to get the ball over half court if a timeout was called. I also don't really care for this. That's like saying that you have 5 seconds to inbound the ball, so if you used 4 of them and call a timeout, then maybe they should give you the remaining 1 second in order to inbound it the second time. I guess you could argue that it's a live ball situation vs. a dead ball situation, but the definition of a timeout in sports is to let a team their act together in a rough situation that they are unable to currently deal with by setting up a different play/method and communicate that to their players.




Some ideas/new rules that I think are good rules are:

1. I'd like to see the time stopped after made baskets under ~4 minutes. It drives me absolutely nuts that someone can make a shot at 2:49, then the ball rolls around, someone slowly walks to go and pick it up, then starts the inbounding process at 2:42 and gets another 5 seconds to inbound it while the clock continues to run. Then, if anyone actually understood anything, they'd realize that you could just simply inbound the ball, never touch it, and let another 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 seconds run off of the clock while no one was guarding you in the backcourt before ever touching the ball. They obviously stop the clock under 1 minute in the second half. But that needs to be extended to roughly ~4 minutes as I said.


2. One of the reasons why the NBA is so bad in my opinion (perhaps it's the same reasons that everyone thinks it's so good) is the fact that it is so fast. The shot clock is short, the backcourt violation is faster, and the court is the same size. You're handpicking ~8-9 guys on each team in the NBA and a lot of them are probably some of the most athletic people in all of world, and you allow them to play on a rim that is the same height and a court that is the same length/width (BlueCurtain, (perhaps sarcastically) thought that our zone would struggle when we played in MSG due to the court being larger).

The NBA implements rules that speed the game up too fast for my liking. At least at this day in age. I always watched the NBA from ~91-92 until about ~99, and I never remember the NBA being this fast. Moqui pointed this out, but he wants it extended for even the college game, which I disagree with. Players have gotten a lot stronger/quicker/faster/athletic, but it doesn't really impact the college game to call for a change. However, the NBA is almost unwatchable with how fast/easy the game has gotten.

 

[moqui]

expand the number of scholarships to 15, but make all scholarships count for 4 years. If a guy leaves early for the pros, you can't refill the space until his 4 years run out. If a guy flunks or is otherwise kicked out, you can't fill the spot until the clock runs out. The only way you can refill is if he transfers to another school, which is then on the hook for his remaining years.

That will allow kids the freedom to leave when they want, but it will inhibit the Kentucky practice of turning over huge freshman classes year after year.

 

[Knicks411]

I think going from 35 to 24 in one fell swoop would be a terrible idea. I would be for going to 30, with the idea of hopefully getting to 24 down the road

 

[GFTakedown]

Any intentional foul in the last few minutes of each half should be an automatic 1-1 unless in the bonus which should be 2. I can't stand when coaches use up the fouls at the end of half or game to impede the offense from getting set.

Shot clock should be 30 seconds which would speed up the game.

Possessions shouldn't be decided by an arrow but a jump ball by the two that have the joint possession.

2nd half possession should be by jump ball also.

3 second calls should be enforced on offense.

 

[Charco]

Sorry guys but jump ball instead of alternating possessions is such a dull, dumb way of handling things. Your point guard ties up their center? What more arbitrary way to decide things than "who's taller?"

Alternating possessions rewards the defensive team. They can only win (they either get the ball or get the possession arrow). The offensive team can only lose (they either lose the ball; or maintain the status quo, but lose the possession arrow.)

To drag down the game with more jump balls... no thanks.

My rule change would be to add trampolines and drop any rules that aren't in Slamball.

 

[LennX6]

I love college basketball, but if I could make some changes I would do the following. I am not somebody who likes change just for the heck of it, but I like to see improvements for me to want change.

I like your 3 and 4 the best, especially the coaching box violations. Speaking of that, it irks me when the pit crews race the chairs out to midcourt during timeout. That just looks dumb.
I hate jump balls, but I think that is because prior to the rule change to possession arrows, we always had guys that lost jump balls. In those days we had 6'5" centers. Jerami Grant , I'd go with him though.
Then last, the slow rolling untouched inbound roll, usually under 30 sec to play. Someday, it will backfire on someone. I can't wait to see it. The 5 seconds to get it inbounds rule should apply, maybe it does, but I have never seen it called, and I swear most times its rolling untouched for 6-7 seconds. That irritating practice "needs killing"

 

[CaptainJ]

Remember Basketball Diaries? I think during exhibition games that players should be allowed to do what those fellows did, and not having any labeling so it leaves it a mystery. I think the exhibitions would suddenly become more interesting and a new play or 2 could be invented. The unexpected is what this modern, sterile life lacks after a certain age, which is continually becoming younger.

 

[Alsacs]

I would to add a couple more changes. Players could where any number they wanted instead of only allowing numbers 0-5 to be available, and second if a player commits a foul on an inbounds and no time comes off the clock then the player fouled gets 1 FT and his team inbounds the ball.

 

[Knicks411]

This one came up today; dont reset the shot clock to 35 when a foul is committed.