NCAA adopts hands-off policy for college basketball (+video)

No touching.

This time, they’re serious.

The NCAA wants a faster pace of play in college basketball and changed or strengthened several rules designed to increase scoring and decrease physical play.

Maybe you’ve heard this before.

Referees are mandated to cut down on hand-checking, holding and bumping by defenders, especially on the perimeter. A similar push in 2013-14 lasted about half the season before, most parties agree, the game reverted to its former physical self.

“They say we’re going to go back to what we had two years ago, where if you put two hands on, automatic foul,” Wichita State coach Gregg Marshall said. “Chucking cutters, automatic foul. They’re going to try to take the physicality out of the game.”

Referees are telling coaches the emphasis will last this season, even it takes one or two more seasons to finally clean the game up. Coaches are prepared for a multitude of foul calls and long games early in the season as referees enforce rules on the books.

“When the officials say it’s going to be ugly, it’s going to be ugly,” Indiana State coach Greg Lansing said. “It’s such a change from how it’s been, it’s going to take awhile.”

The NCAA rules committee, made up of coaches and athletic directors, recommended the changes. J.D. Collins, the NCAA national coordinator of men’s basketball officiating, is in charge of making the emphasis permanent. Officials say Collins is determined and well-respected enough to make it work.

“Everybody’s on the same page,” said Wichitan Winston Stith, who referees NCAA Division I games.

The incentive is NCAA Tournament assignments.

“He wants the purity of college basketball brought back into the game,” said Wichita referee Toby Martinez. “J.D. will reward the guys who do apply the rules as written. If you’re not, you will be left off the bus.”

The NBA went through a similar cleansing throughout the 1990s, largely a reaction to the physical style of the Detroit Pistons and New York Knicks, by ending hand-checking in 1994 and further eliminating contact in 1999. College basketball wants to follow the same path, toward a free-flowing game where shooters can rise without bumps and drivers can find open lanes to the hoop.

“I’ve talked to enough NBA guys and they say our game is much more physical than the NBA,” Lansing said. “I don’t mind them cleaning that up, but I wish the guys would have six fouls or wouldn’t be able to foul out so you don’t take some of your best players out of the game.”

The NCAA describes the focus as enforcing the directives adopted before the 2013-14 season. It wants greater freedom of movement for players with and without the ball. The restricted-arc area in the lane is expanded to four feet from three feet in an effort to limit collisions and give players more room to score around the basket.

Stith described the offensive player as wrapped in a protected cylinder around his body.

“Defensive players can’t belly up anymore,” he said. “If there’s movement by the offense and then there’s contact, there’s going to be a foul. If the offensive player makes a movement and the defender tries to stop him with a forearm, that’s going to be a foul. If he puts a hand on him, that’s probably going to be a foul.”

Move your feet, defenders.

“Your good teams are going to adjust, because they are well-coached,” Martinez said. “There will be a lot of fouls, lots of free throws. It’s not going to be fun to watch.”

Remember, the coaches and athletic directors wanted this change. In 2013, teams averaged 67.5 points, lowest since 1952. It moved to 71 points the next season before dropping to 67.7 last season.

“I apply the rule book,” Martinez said. “We’re not even in the room when they make the decisions.”

WSU shot 31 free throws in Saturday’s exhibition game against NCAA Division II Hawaii Pacific, more than it shot in all but four of its games last season. Hawaii Pacific shot 24. In scrimmages and exhibitions, players are learning how the game will be called this season.

“You’re not going to be able to use your forearms, elbows, hands,” WSU guard Ron Baker said. “The big emphasis we’ve been trying to work on in practice is ‘Show your hands.’ If you show the contact in your mid-section and your core, a lot of fouls won’t get called. If you put your hands on an offensive player, take away their path to whereever they want to go, that’s definitely going to be a foul.”

The 30-second shot clock, down five seconds from previous seasons, generated much of the conversation in recent weeks. It wasn’t mentioned after WSU’s exhibition game. Opinions differ on its impact on the game.

“That five seconds is a big difference,” Indiana State forward Khristian Smith said at Missouri Valley Conference media day. “You’ve got to get in your offense a lot faster, especially in the transition game. The transition offense is a lot faster.”

Teammate Devonte Brown predicts the clock will speed up play early in the season. When conference play arrives, bringing it with increased familiarity, better scouting reports and fatigue, things will change.

“It’s all about defense in the later part of the season,” he said.

Some coaches are running offense with the timer below 30 to acclimate their players to the time crunch. Loyola played in the College Basketball Invitational last season using a 30-second clock, as the NIT did also.

“I like that rule, but it will be an adjustment,” Loyola coach Porter Moser said. “When that 10-second mark comes, that’s the button of … you’re really trying to get a shot. That comes five seconds faster.”

With the 30-second clock, some coaches envision fewer plays being called from the sideline. Combine that with the new rule prohibiting coaches from calling timeouts during play and the responsibility for thinking along with the game seems to shift more to the athletes.

“It’s going to come down to some individual play as the shot clock winds down,” Evansville guard D.J. Balentine said. “You can’t run a set with 15 seconds all the time. You’re going to have to go out there and make plays.”

In the past, some coaches — Marshall among them — excelled at saving their team from a turnover by calling timeout as a 10-second violation or bad pass loomed. Now a player must anticipate those situations and communicate, often in times when the crowd is roaring.

“It’s easier to get an official’s attention than the player’s attention,” Moser said. “The officials are trained to sometimes to look over at you.”

This story was originally published November 10, 2015 at 3:05 PM with the headline "NCAA adopts hands-off policy for college basketball (+video)."