Shorter Shot Clock & Rule Changes Galore

Yesterday the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel approved a load of rule changes attempting to accomplish these three things:

1) Improve the pace of play
2) Better balance offense with defense
They believe the game is currently defense heavy. Scoring dropped to 67.6 points per game last year, which was 5 points lower than the year before, and near an all-time low.
3) Reduce the physicality in the sport

With their stated goals in mind, here are is a breakdown of the rule changes that will be implemented in the upcoming 2015-16 basketball season.

30 Second Shot Clock

Back in the 1993-94 season the shot clock was reduced from 45 seconds to 35 seconds. Next season the shot clock will be reduced to 30 seconds.  Now the shot clock will only be 6 seconds away from the NBA’s 24 second shot clock.  This will speed up the pace of the game, but in my opinion will also increase scoring. Teams like UVA, who ranked 348th out of 351 teams in possessions in a game, will be forced to shoot more in a game, and as a result let their opponents shoot more.

Timeouts

• Teams will have one fewer team timeout (only three can carry over instead of four) in the second half.
• If a team is taking too long resuming play after a timeout (it doesn’t give an actual time) they will issue a delay-of-game warning when a team does not comply, and a one-shot technical foul on subsequent violations.
• If a timeout is called within 30 seconds of a media timeout, it will serve as the media timeout.
• A coach can no longer call a timeout when the ball is live.
• A team is only allowed 10 TOTAL seconds to advance the ball to the front court (with a few exceptions). It won’t be reset after a stoppage.
• The amount of time allotted to replace a disqualified player has been reduced from 20 to 15 seconds.

3-foot Arc to 4-foot Arc

The ever so popular restricted-area arc in front of the basket has been expanded one more foot, making it a 4-foot arc.  The NCAA wants to continue to reduce the number of collisions around the hoop.  This was actually tested in the NIT this past post-season, and the number of block/charge plays decreased from 2.77 per game to 1.96 per game.

Other Rules…

• Refs can now penalize players for faking fouls, though it doesn’t say what the penalty will be.  This should prove interesting.
• Officials can now use the monitor to review a potential shot clock violation on made field goals throughout the entire game. I’m not sure how this will improve the pace of play.
• Class B technical fouls (hanging on the rim and delaying the resumption of play, for example) will be one-shot technical fouls. Previously, two shots were granted for these.
• The five-second closely guarded rule while dribbling the ball has been eliminated.  This is just thrown in as a bullet at the bottom of their report.  Am I the only one that thinks this is a BIG deal?
• Removing the prohibition on dunking in pregame warmups and at halftime. This should increase the entertainment value and people’s promptness in arriving.  Good thinking NCAA.

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