Rules changes that make sense

Well, two out of three anyway. We'll finally get rid of the charges directly under the basket (sorry floppers, you know who you are), and I think the free-throw change is a good one as well.

   The flagrant foul thing makes me worry that college basketball will start to resemble the NBA, with every hard foul turned into some huge issue. We'll see on that.
    The charge thing has been a long time coming, though, and it's good to see college hoops follow the NBA's lead, finally, on that one. Now if they'll just listen to Dick Vitale and go to actual jump-ball situations instead of the possession arrow...

Comments

[Joe Yarbrough]

I agree that the replay rule is somewhat concerning; you wouldn't want college ball to follow the NBA with the ridiculous time spent in wringing of hands over every hard foul.

[Mark]

I always thought the jump ball thing was a non-issue. To me, giving the advantage to the player with the height/vertical advantage is just as arbitrary as the alternating arrow. At least now a point guard has a chance of forcing a turnover on a center on a "jump ball."

[beee-dubbb]

What free throw change?

[Bo Ryan]

Thank goodness they didn't eliminate ridiculous flopping away from the basket. What else would we work on in practice?

[UpNorthSpartan]

the only thing dukie v knows anything about is getting rid od the possession arrow

[HoopsFan02]

Flopping rule was a good start - but I think they implemented in a flawed manner that is just going to lead to more questionable/bad calls. Best I can tell from the rule description they didn't actually put in the semi-circle under the hoop like the NBA -- so it's going to turn into a judgment call by the refs instead of a really clear/easy call one way or another.

[Michael Motta]

I'm not as high on the getting rid of charges under the basket as most people seem to be. If it's a flop, yeah, then don't call it a charge, but this should go for anyplace on the court.

My reasonings are these:
Why should the area directly underneath the basket be treated differently from any other spot on the floor? What makes it so special?

The strange thing here is that in other similar "goal" sports, such as hockey and soccer, if anything, the team defending the goal is given the special treatment around its own goal. The default is that what a team is trying to prevent the other team from getting to is the defense's first and must be taken by the offense rather than given away. For instance, the crease in hockey is there to protect the defense, not to give the offense carte blanche. The goalkeeper in soccer is often, at least de facto, given the benefit of the doubt in terms of scrums near his team's own goal. I think the goal in basketball should also be considered by default secured by the defensive side, with the offense needing to provide "the preponderance of the evidence", such as in a civil suit. The burden of proof should be on the offense rather than on the defense.

My other thought on this is that if the offense is allowed to get away with what on the rest of the floor would be a foul, why isn't the defense allowed to "foul" underneath the basket too? One could just as easily argue that this is what the offensive player gets for being so close to the basket - a smack in the gut! Why does the one defending his own turf get penalized for it, but the one who is offending it gets rewarded for doing so?

[Stone]

Please ask Izzo why the jump ball thing hasn't been changed already. Unless my memory fails me, it's been many years since he was ever asked about that.

We can pretty much call the replay the flagrant rule the Goran Suton rule.

[tower]

Underneath the basket is different than anywhere else on the floor because that's where the offense takes the ball hard to. It seems like Raymar Morgan was always getting caught on that, if he took it strong there'd be some guy in red and white that would slide under him under the rim and they'd call a charge. I'm as leary of Raymar's psyche as anyone but I can understand it a little bit when you're trying to be aggressive and take it to the rack hard only to have that shiznit called on you. Once you've beaten your defender you should be able to go hard to the hole without the fear of someone jumping in there from the other side. It would add a little bit of hesitancy to my dominating drives for sure!

[Mr. T]

Give me a break...drawing charges is the last real opportunity to slow down out of control players...did you not see Lebron in the playoffs. He catches the ball, goes as hard as he can, and ends up drawing a blocking foul every time because of that stupid circle. No one like good defense anymore.

[psyc]

I like Mike's idea, lets turn college hoops into soccer!!!!!!!!!! Goaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaallll!!!!!!!!!!!!

[tower]

Slipping in under the basket as a player is driving is not good defense, it's "too late" defense. I'm all for good defense but when someone has beaten their defender only to find someone underneath them at the rim that's just silly.

On another note, Floyd resigned from USC due to cheating allegations, etc. At least we didn't get put out of the tournament by his team like we did with Memphis two years ago. Damn I hate that these guys do this and advance into the tourney putting out teams that are playing by the rules. Nothing can be done retroactively for the losers, they just take away the wins from the cheaters.

[Stan]

great point tower.

to this day, michgan's fab five teams are rememebered as being legendary by everybody who was around then (which results in endless amts of publicity for the school), while the truth is that their tourny runs don't even count.

[Jeff]

I am opposed to the "charge circle" as well. Why make rules that make it illegal to play defense. That is exactly why the NBA blows.

Following any lead of the NBA is the wrong thing to do.

[LeeBee]

Michael Motta is right on! Next, they will institute a "wink-wink" rule that if a player has a big enough reputation, he can take an extra step or two but only when going towards the basket.

[Mike]

The charge rule is so welcome. No one owns the space under the hoop.

I don't really buy the possession arrow really saves much time. Every time the game stops there are all sorts of player rotations and commercials. Plus everyone gets positioned for a set play on the in bounds. Can't take much more time to just gather everyone in the middle of the court.

[gm]

along the lines of the floyd resignation is the charge against memphis' dozier and rose for having others take their SAT's for them. Of course Calimari is insulated from this, there is talk of stripping all memphis victories from 2008-09.

And lets not forget ole calhoun out at uconn still under ncaa investigation.

Are we the only elite program that plays by the rules?

[Mr. T]

Actually, the space under the basket should be like all of the other space on the court...The one with proper position owns the space...whether that's an offensive player or defensive player. Slipping in under the basket is different than having position before the offensive player goes into the air. Good position is what basketball used to be about, but apparently that's changing.

[tower]

Yep, if you're there well in advance that's one thing but way too often the weasels slip in there as the O player jumps and there's no way to avoid them on the way down. Especially for ballers like me that get so high!

[holtram]

I would hate to see jump balls replace the posession arrow. Refs can't throw the ball straight up half the time and you never see it get all the way to the the top of the arc before the jumper smacks it.

Jump balls suck.

[msu76]

Let's not get too cynical, gm. I think Duke & UNC are clean, and Kansas is as well ever since Larry Brown left under a cloud. Crean will clean IU up, and I think the Big 10 hoops programs are all pretty clean now, if not elite. I also think Howland runs a good program at UCLA as does Few at Gonzaga (he's friends with Jud!) But yes, this gives us one more opportunity to say it: thank God for Izzo!

[Ab]

The rule change on charging wouldn't be necessary if the refs would make the calls correctly in the first place! In recent years the calls have favored the defense way too much. What happened to the rule that the defense needs to be set with both feet planted and no movement toward the approaching player. That hasn't seem to matter the last few seasons. If they'd called these as they should then they wouldn't need to be so concerned about the defense taking chances under the basket to draw the charge

[drmuffin]

I agree about the position arguement. It's silly to exclude the defensive player from part of his turf. How about doing something about the pushing off with the off arm on drives. To me, that's what really gives the o player the advantage. It used to be illegal. When did they change that rule?

[Mr Tan-Fan]

The Tanner gots the rules baby !!!