If my changes are implemented, Bruce Weber would never again look this silly. Well, that’s probably not true as he looks silly without calling a 30-second timeout.
College basketball is a great game. The season is short so the results of every game are meaningful. Players aren’t as adored and entitled (in most programs) as they are in pro sports. Collaboration is rewarded. The environments at arenas and gyms are electric. What’s not to love?
Well, there are plenty of changes I would make if I were the czar of college hoops. Some of my changes are borderline inane – the rantings of a guy disappointing with the direction of college sports as a branding agent for universities that should be more concerned with the quality of the education offered than the number of applications it can generate through televised sporting events.
1 – Get rid of the one-and-dones – or at least limit them. The NBA is the architect of the one-and-done policy, so attacking this through the universities is a challenge, but the NCAA could restrict the number of scholarships a school is allowed to offer over a four-year period. Programs can have 13 players under scholarship at any time, so how about restricting the number of scholarships to 18 over rolling four-year periods. That allows for a transfer or two per year, or the occasional player who jumps to the NBA early, but penalizes a program for churning through an endless supply of NBA ready athletes who have no interest in education. Let’s call this “the Kentucky Rule”.
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2 – Eliminate the celebritization of coaches, and their obscene salaries. Paying coaches as tenured professors would allow them to focus on teaching their players rather than constantly working ADs for extensions that come with massive raises. College employees should each be focused upon the mission statement of the school, and that means education – not an ravenous pursuit of victory that requires moral and ethical compromises. It would also likely send the leeches concerned more with filling their pockets and building fame than building a legacy of strong and wise men scurrying for a different profession. Let’s call this “the John Calipari Rule”.
3 – Severely restrict the recruiting calendar – Allow college coaches to attend unlimited high school games during the season, but end the meat-market of summer basketball. For all that is goofy about college coaches, it can’t be debated the grind of recruiting is insane. End the summer contact periods so coaches have some time to live a pseudo-normal life. Summer basketball is a terrible venue for evaluation. Kids and coaches are all exhausted, and the leadership of many summer programs is questionable at best. Continue to hold the events because some of the programs teach the game well, but ban college coaches from attending. Let’s call this “the Coaches are People Too Rule”.
4 – Pare down the rule book to what’s important. I’m big into simplification, and right now the NCAA rule book is so complex that universities employ entire compliance staffs to monitor rules and ensure strict obedience. That’s a result of the twisting and distortion of the simple rules that used to govern college sports, so the simplification of rules must be combined with another effort that makes abuses of the rules a risk that coaches are unwilling to take. And that means…
5 – Expel cheating coaches. You cheat, you lose your job, and not just your current job. Coaches who cheat would forfeit their ability to lead the basketball program of an NCAA member. Cheat – goodbye. Easy. Simple. Gray area – gone. Let’s call this “the Kelvin Sampson Rule”.
6 – Eliminate the silly limits on practicing. Whether the NCAA limits supervised practices and workouts to 20 hours a week, dedicated college basketball players are going to find a way to work a hell of a lot longer than that. Why not make it worth the players’ efforts by giving them access to the coaches employed to instruct them. Do other departments restrict the amount of hours a student is allowed to spend with professors? Let’s call this “the Logic in Education Rule”.
7 – End the parade of cupcakes. Once and for all, let’s segregate the haves and have-nots. There are more competitive conferences in college hoops than college football, so the circle of excellence extends beyond the Power Five, but the endless parade of noncompetitive opponents is not what fans pay to see, nor what players enjoy. Texas Southern, Alcorn State, IPFW, Oakland, etc… are teams that would be better off playing each other than Michigan State, Kentucky, UNC, and other blue bloods. And the teams from the top basketball conferences should play each other more often. For the Big Ten, I would like to see basketball return to playing a balanced schedule – each team playing home and home with the other 13 teams. Extend the conference season into December. Who loses?
8 – Eliminate timeouts inside the last two minutes of the game. Gone. Done. You know what, the hell with it, eliminate timeouts period! The ends of close games would become incredibly exciting and the micromanagement of coaches incapable of outthinking their own players would end. More focus would be paid to teaching the game in practice, rather than choreographing player movement for sets called during timeouts. Let’s call this “the Bob Knight Rule” in celebration of a coach who prepared his teams to play without the crutch of timeout instruction.
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9 – Goodbye instant replay being used to reverse calls. The focus of any activity with the word ‘college’ in front of it should be education. Getting every call exactly right is not the goal. Delays for replay do nothing for the enjoyment of the fans or education of the players. It’s a solution for a problem that has no effect on what matters in the game.
Whew, that’s a lot of change, and I don’t any of us lives to see even one of them implemented. This list is not about reality, but about a version of reality I would like to create. College basketball would be a better game for players and fans, but less lucrative for coaches and administrators, so none of this will ever come to pass. That’s okay. Dreaming is good for the soul, and college basketball is a pretty damn good game.
Scoring is suffering. Between 1990 and 1999, the winning team in the championship game scored 75 or more points 10 times. Next decade? 8 times. This decade? So far, once. So goes basketball. Drive the ball, so first set up high screens. It has become a game of sets rather than five player offense. Even Bo Ryan last year abandoned much flex principles for setting up match-ups with a form of a clear out. And while the sets and match-ups are being “assembled,” the game ticks away. NCAA basketball has become a slow game: players posting on the interior and on the three and waiting. Team movement doesn’t pay in points the way drives and 3’s do.
That’s true in many places, but I’ll tell you the same thing ESPN’s Chris Spatola told me last year – watch Davidson. They play basketball the way it used to be played, and they are very successful. Lots of fun to watch.
Yea you and your love affair with McKillop good lord Sterling…….Have you seen his defensive ranking????? yea 186 just a little better than Harold Hill.
Watch his team instead of combing through numbers on kenpom.
They are 186 on Ken Pom Kent that’s all I need to know ok, stop it now.
I expect more from you. Watch Davidson play, and then tell me what you think.
I agree with the vast majority of your changes. I love that two rules are dedicated to Wildcat basketball. There needs to be changes and I agree whole-heartedly with yours, but I would amend just three of your propositions. The three changes I would amend are:
5 – Expel cheating coaches. I agree in principle but lifetime bans for anything seem to be an overreaction and ends up hurting the game. For instance, I think baseball would be better if Pete Rose was in the game. I think IU would be better if they never instilled that insane “Zero Tolerance” policy that got Knight fired in an unceremonious fashion. Plus, who doesn’t like a good redemption story? I would make it a 5 year ban and then a second violation would seal their NCAA fate.
7 – End the parade of cupcakes. I wouldn’t eliminate them, but I would restrict them and make them more costly. For example, require any scheduled game to involve a home-and-home element to it. It can be a two for one deal, but most big programs would not want to actually play at McNeese State. That change in contract construction would eliminate a lot of the cupcake scheduling. The reason I don’t want to eliminate it altogether is because those games make smaller programs’ seasons and offers the hope of “March Madness” type upset – especially when the smaller teams get to host. In addition, how would you determine who a cupcake is? It wasn’t long ago that Gonzaga (WCC) ,Butler (Horizon), Wichita State (MVC), and Xavier (MCC) could have been considered cupcakes.
8. Eliminate timeouts inside the last two minutes of the game. I agree that timeouts should be more limited. Perhaps prohibit two successive timeouts within the same possession – regardless of the team that calls it would take care of that problem. That would eliminate the offense calling a timeout to respond to defensive alignment even if the defense called the first one. I guess as a former coach, I want a little more room to strategize. Ironically, you call this the Bob Knight rule because one of the most masterful strategies I have seen was from Bob Knight at a time at the closing seconds of the game. WIth IU behind by a point and not having possession, Knight calls a timeout and sets up a scenario that forced the offensive team to charge into an IU player when trying to get open for the inbounds play. I had never seen anything like that before (the positioning, that is).
All in all, I would like your changes even without my amendments better than the status quo.
Let’s do away with forcing kids to go to college–they aren’t there for an education and they aren’t getting one. This is what the D League is for. Draft a kid out of high school if they want to go pro and send him to the minors to learn how to be a pro. University is not supposed to be a farm system for pro sports, it’s a shame it’s gone that far.
Canadian college basketball grants one timeout per half and their games, while obviously lacking in talent, are more entertaining because they’re more fluid.
I agree with the vast majority of your changes. I love that two rules are dedicated to Wildcat basketball. There needs to be changes and I agree whole-heartedly with yours, but I would amend just three of your propositions. The three changes I would amend are:
5 – Expel cheating coaches. I agree in principle but lifetime bans for anything seem to be an overreaction and ends up hurting the game. For instance, I think baseball would be better if Pete Rose was in the game. I think IU would be better if they never instilled that insane “Zero Tolerance” policy that got Knight fired in an unceremonious fashion. Plus, who doesn’t like a good redemption story? I would make it a 5 year ban and then a second violation would seal their NCAA fate.
7 – End the parade of cupcakes. I wouldn’t eliminate them, but I would restrict them and make them more costly. For example, require any scheduled game to involve a home-and-home element to it. It can be a two for one deal, but most big programs would not want to actually play at McNeese State. That change in contract construction would eliminate a lot of the cupcake scheduling. The reason I don’t want to eliminate it altogether is because those games make smaller programs’ seasons and offers the hope of “March Madness” type upset – especially when the smaller teams get to host. In addition, how would you determine who a cupcake is? It wasn’t long ago that Gonzaga (WCC) ,Butler (Horizon), Wichita State (MVC), and Xavier (MCC) could have been considered cupcakes.
8. Eliminate timeouts inside the last two minutes of the game. I agree that timeouts should be more limited. Perhaps make prohibiting two successive timeouts within the same possession – regardless of the team that calls it would take care of that problem. That would eliminate the offense calling a timeout to respond to defensive alignment a even – if the defense called the first one. I guess as a former coach, I want a little more room to strategize. Ironically, you call this the Bob Knight rule because one of the most masterful strategies I have seen was from Bob Knight at a time at the closing seconds of the game. WIth IU behind by a point and not having possession, Knight calls a timeout and sets up a scenario that forced the offensive team to charge into an IU player when trying to get open for the inbounds play. I had never seen anything like that before (the positioning, that is).
All in all, I would like your changes even without my amendments better than the status quo.
Your point on Bob Knight is absolutely true. Rarely do you see the attempt to take a charge by anyone but Duke in that situation today. Rarely do you see the offense attack the key player who has 4 fouls. Indiana high schools would do both constantly back in the day.
wow. what a bunch of terrible ideas. and is celebritization a word? i think not. sports writers, jeesh. how are you supposed to eliminate that exactly?
how are coaches going to find time to attend these high school games during the season. or do you expect them to only recruit a 50 mile radius from campus?
do you see any irony in you wanting multi-millionaire coaches to have more free time while expecting unpaid players with full class loads to practice more? ridiculous.
want to eliminate cupcakes? stop going to the games. only way.
eliminate time outs? wtf?
obviously you have never coached or played at a high level. you, along with many uneducated fans believe the most interesting basketball are the games with the most points.
here’s a couple rule changes that would help the game in my not so humble opinion as a coach of 20 years. expand the shot clock to 45 seconds. why homogenize the game so that every team is forced to play the same way. that is what we are getting now and i find it boring to watch the never ending high ball screens. blah. remember when princeton nearly knocked off georgetown in the ncaa’s years back? i think contrasting styles of play adds a great deal of interest to the game.
also, eliminate the “no-charge arc” near the basket. as of now, you could stand still as a statue inside that arc for 30 seconds and if an offensive player throws himself into you it is a defensive foul. concept off help defense from the post is gone. cutting off the baseline, not allowed. i have seen players simply stepping aside (colin hartman) and allowing lay ups because what else can they do?
I hate to question your reading comprehension, but have no choice.
First, I would prefer to eliminate the shot clock, so we agree that different styles of play should be celebrated, not eliminated.
Nowhere did I say I want players practicing more. They already work relentlessly. I want the work to be supervised so it’s more productive. And I don’t want multi-millionaire coaches to be multi-millionaires at all. Thought I covered that.
Coaches constantly complain about limits on number of HS games they are allowed to watch.
Language is for our use, and inventing words is how language started. Celebritization may not have been a word when I first used it, but it is widely accepted now.
And while you did not accuse me of being one of the dolts who equate high point totals with more exciting basketball, I resent the inference that I am somehow linked with them. As far as your assertion that I’ve never coached – I am the inventor of the “Get a stop” defense which when implemented and executed correctly results in shutout!
Of course, these ideas are ridiculous and will never be enacted, but they would make the game more enjoyable for me to watch – and the college basketball environment more enjoyable and productive for the student-athletes, which should be the goal of the whole operation.
So tired of coaches – and former coaches – talking about basketball like it was invented for their enjoyment. Reminds me of when I was a camp counselor. I’m running some activity for the kids, and another counselor pulled me aside and said, “You don’t get it. We’re not here for the kids – they’re here for us!”
Not for me they weren’t.
I can’t help to think you are pointing at me, too, a little about your “coaches or former coaches” comment. Even though you didn’t respond to my lengthy response to your post (agreed with a vast majority), I am not sure how any of it slighted the players. When I think about eliminating the timeouts at the end of the game (and I agreed that there should be increased limits on them, btw), I don’t see how that helps them, either. Oh, I guess you can say that they may benefit from some abstract view of teaching a kid how to deal with problems on the fly, but the opposite lesson holds true, too. Really, Kent, it looks like your objection about the timeouts only benefits impatient fans who do not want wait for the climax of the game.
If your comment wasn’t directed at me at all, then I apologize, but that’s what you get for ignoring my thoughtful response to your post. 😉
The response was not directed at you at all, and while I read every comment, I don’t respond to all of them. Some are so well written, a response from me feels like grandstanding.
Here’s my feeling about basketball timeouts – in many cases they are devices used to choreograph the strategic movements of players. I would rather the game be taught during practice, and the results of that education be displayed on the floor. When timeouts are used to cover for bad coaching, I get frustrated. When they are misused or called simply because they exist, I get angry.
And really, is waiting for the climax of the game a positive? Why not roll right through zeroes, as with hockey? Would that diminish the quality of the game?
Fair enough, but . . .
>>And really, is waiting for the climax of the game a positive? Why not roll right through zeroes, as with hockey? Would that diminish the quality of the game?<<
Hockey makes me want to kill myself. lol Surely you don't want basketball games to be able to end in a tie, do you? 😉 At least you didn't say like soccer where the officials can just add time to the clock all wily nily when the mood strikes them (World Cup, anyway).