Coaches are too involved
Ten changes that will make games more enjoyable and put them in the hands of players.
The NCAA Tournament is, deservedly, one of the highlights of the American sports calendar. For three weeks, the nation stops and revels in last-second shots, dramatic upsets and Cinderella runs by unfamiliar teams — the latest being Loyola-Chicago’s remarkable trip to the Final Four.
But for everything that is great about the tournament, one very important thing is not: the basketball itself.
Before anyone gets their haunches up, though, this isn’t a re-litigation of the alleged debate over whether the NBA is better than college basketball. The answer to that is obvious.
This is an attempt to bring the sport into the modern era and to make it more enjoyable to sit and watch a college game at any point of the season — not just in March, when the stakes are highest.
So here are 10 proposed changes to open up the game and make it far more enjoyable to watch. Most importantly, these changes would fix what is truly college basketball’s biggest problem: the over-involvement of its coaches.
1. Drop halves for four 10-minute quarters.
This one is easy. The idea that there are two 20-minute halves makes no sense. High schools play with quarters. The NBA does, too. So does international ball. The women’s game has switched to it, and this year the National Invitational Tournament implemented it as an experiment.
2. Change the fouling rules to get to the penalty quicker.
If a team doesn’t have many fouls called against it during a half in college now, it can find itself in a situation where it has to foul three and four times in the final minute or so just to get the opposing team to the foul line. And, if we are going to change the structure of the game from halves to quarters, we have to address the foul situation.
3. Reduce the shot clock from 30 seconds to 24.
4. Reduce the backcourt time from 10 seconds to eight.
The way the college game is structured now, a team can build an eight or 10 point lead with, say, six minutes to go, and then sit on the ball for 28 seconds every possession before taking a shot. It’s a slightly modernized version of Dean Smith’s “Four Corners” offense and often makes the final 10 minutes of a game — what should be its most exciting period — a bore.
Reduce the shot clock to 24 seconds, as it is in the NBA, and it allows for more possessions — and, crucially, less time for the coaches on the sidelines to be able to dictate what is happening on the court to their players. Pushing the college game in this direction will be a common refrain throughout this piece. And, given we are reducing the shot clock by 20 percent, we’ll do the same with the time teams are allowed to stay in the backcourt. In tandem, these changes could make a big difference.
5. Move the 3-point line back from its current location (20 feet, 9 inches) to the distance used by the International Basketball Federation (22 feet, 2 inches).
In addition to taking away the control of the game from the coaches and giving it to the players, the other key issue with college basketball today is the lack of space for players to operate on the court. That’s partly due to defensive rules (which we’ll get to), but the biggest problem is the 3-point line is simply too close to the basket.
6. Institute a defensive three seconds rule.
This change will likely drive fans of teams like Syracuse and its famed 2-3 zone, into a frenzy, as it would prevent a key part of that defensive style — having a giant 7-footer standing under the basket at all times — from being functional. But the lack of space on the court and the ability of teams to pack the interior in a zone leads to opponents flinging up a series of contested shots from the perimeter — and, inevitably, ugly games to watch.
7. Allow teams to advance the ball to midcourt upon calling timeouts.
This one is obvious. Yes, being able to bring the ball to half court after calling a timeout would rob us of moments like Duke legend Christian Laettner’s shot against Kentucky after catching a full court pass from Grant Hill, or Michigan freshman Jordan Poole’s 3-pointer to beat Houston at the buzzer recently.
But having the opportunity to move the ball to half court would allow for far more teams to have a realistic chance at hitting a tying or winning shot. The goal here is to make the final moments of these games as entertaining as possible and to give teams a chance to complete the kinds of comebacks that make college ball, and particularly the NCAA Tournament, so special. This is one that needs to happen.
8. No timeouts allowed after made baskets.
9. No substitutions after the last free throw taken.
These rules are being put together because, while governing different things, they have the same impact. By calling a timeout after a made basket or allowing for substitutions after the last free throw is made (either two or three of them, depending on how many are being taken), coaches are able to stop the game and set up their defenses.
By doing away with this, like so many of the things on this list, it will take the game out of the hands of the coaches on the sidelines and put it in the hands of the players on the court.
10. Stop counting technical fouls as personal fouls.
Why the NCAA has decided to count technicals as personal fouls is beyond me. There are already enough questions about the quality of college basketball referees in terms of getting the simple and obvious calls right. Add in that if a referee calls a quick-trigger technical foul, as they did with Alabama star Collin Sexton during this year’s tournament, it puts that player in further foul trouble and only exacerbates the problem.
There was some thought to also include pushing the foul limit to six, instead of the current five, but it was decided that five fouls for a 40-minute game is more than enough. Ensuring those five fouls are only personal fouls and not technicals is a good middle ground.