Rule Changes to Know In the Upcoming Basketball Season

13-14 Basketball ACC & Other College Basketball NCS Basketball31

This coming college basketball season will bring some interesting rule changes, especially in the area of instant replay.  The NCAA is expanding the role of instant replay incrementally, giving referees a chance to correct errors they make and to make calls that they perhaps overlooked in the course of play.  There are also rules designed to open up play a bit more, and an emphasis on charge/block calls is once again part of the game.  We’re not going to include the rule changes about uniforms and referee presence pre-game, but if you are interested, you can find them here:

2013-14 and 2014-15 NCAA Men’s Basketball Rulebook

First, a rule change that will probably hurt Duke more than most other teams, and one that makes it harder to establish proper defensive position and thus gain a charging call.  This rule change also aligns NCAA basketball with the NBA’s rule on charge/block calls.  More than likely it will result in fewer charging calls on players driving to the basket:

Establishing Legal Guarding Position – (Rule 4-17.4.d)

When the opponent with the ball is airborne, the guard shall have attained legal guarding position before the opponent begins his upward motion with his hand/arms to shoot or pass.

This next change is pretty easy to understand and is more of a clarification:

Personal foul- elbow. (Rule10-1.14.c)

Illegal contact caused by the swinging of the elbow(s) that occurs above or below the shoulders of an opponent is a common, flagrant 1 or flagrant 2 personal foul. Such contact no longer requires a minimum of a flagrant 1 personal foul when it occurs above the shoulders of an opponent.

Replay is expanding.  In my opinion this is potentially disruptive and could result in lengthy delays, especially if the ACC follows the standard it set in football of allowing for vanity reviews (the ACC has admitted in the past it reviews some plays in football to make the on-field referees look better.)

Monitor Review- Fouls. (Rules 11-2.1.d.1 and .2)

When a foul has been called on the floor, a monitor review is permitted to determine if a flagrant 2 personal or flagrant 2 contact technical foul occurred. When it is determined that no such foul occurred but that a flagrant 1, common or contact dead ball technical did occur, that foul shall be penalized accordingly. When the review discloses, by indisputable evidence, that there was no foul committed, the foul call shall be reversed with no foul charged. In situations where officials fail to make a call on the floor, officials are permitted to review for a flagrant 2 personal or flagrant 2 contact technical foul, and when no such foul(s) occurred, a flagrant 1 personal may be charged or no foul charged, but common foul may not be charged.

Another instant-replay change:

Monitor Review- Player to be charged with foul. (Rule 11-2.1.d.5)

After a foul has been called, officials may use the monitor to determine on whom a foul is to be charged when there is uncertainty.

Home cooking the game clock can be overturned in replay now:

Monitor Review- Timing mistake. (Rules 11-2.1.c.1.c).
On an out of bounds violation, the official shall determine the elapsed time before the game clock stopped from the time the ball actually hit out of bounds.

And another replay change:

Monitor Review- Shot clock violation. (Rule 11-2.1.e.1)

In the last two minutes of the second period and overtime(s), officials may use the monitor to determine whether a shot clock violation occurred.

But wait, there’s more!

Monitor Review- Out of bounds violation. (Rule 11-2.1.e.2)

In the last two minutes of the second period and overtime(s), officials may use the monitor to determine which team caused the ball to go out of bounds when there is a deflection involving two or more players.

Players will no longer have the referees counting off the ten second count in the backcourt.  I predict that this could result in some fairly controversial calls over the course of the season:

Official’s Duties- 10-second back court count. (Rule 2-7.9)

There will be no visible count on a 10-second back court violation unless there is no shot clock available. Officials will use the shot clock to count for a 10-second back court violation, except when the shot clock has been turned off at the end of each period.

And lastly, a pretty major change to the goaltending rule.  This will probably result in more calls:

Violations- Goaltending. (Rule 9-17.5)

When the ball contacts the backboard and any part of the ball is above the rim on a field goal attempt, it is considered to be on its downward flight. In such case, it is goaltending when the ball is touched by a player as long as it has a possibility of entering the basket.

Areas of Emphasis

Apparently for comedy’s sake, here are the three areas of officiating concern this upcoming season:

Handchecking
The rules committee is concerned that various types of handchecking on a player with the ball drastically reduces the dribbler’s ability to beat his man to create scoring opportunities. Accordingly, certain guidelines for officiating these plays have been inserted into Rule 10 and officials are instructed to call the fouls as written in the rules.
Unless you are Teddy Valentine or Dr. Karl Hess.  They make their own interpretations and do not require nor heed the guidance of the NCAA Rulebook.
Freedom of Movement
The rules committee continues to express concern that the rules relating to a player’s ability to move with or without the ball are being neglected by officials resulting in more physical play and less opportunity for scoring. Officials need to refocus their energies on penalizing illegal contact by the defense which prevents players from cutting freely, running their offense and otherwise creating a more free-flowing game.
And finally, more emphasis on Block/Charge calls, but again, as we know, ACC rules have their own interpretation of the rules and the conference will never admit publicly that their refs are anything but 100% correct on every call:
Block/Charge Plays
After reviewing tapes of numerous block/charge plays, the committee is concerned about the number of incorrect calls made, especially on plays involving 1.) a defensive player moving forward toward the dribbler in an attempt to establish initial legal guarding position outside the restricted area, and 2.) the defender not establishing initial legal guarding position on plays involving airborne shooters/passers. The committee asked that an educational process be undertaken to improve the officiating calls on these plays.

 

 

13-14 Basketball ACC & Other College Basketball NCS Basketball

31 Responses to Rule Changes to Know In the Upcoming Basketball Season

  1. wilmwolf80 10/09/2013 at 1:49 PM #

    With all the added replay opportunities, is there going to be a dedicated replay official? Or are we going to see a dozen little conferences at the scorers table during the game to look at a monitor? I can see some excruciatingly long games coming this year, especially come tournament time.

  2. ryebread 10/09/2013 at 2:34 PM #

    Syracuse will get most favored nation status at least until Jim B leaves. He’ll bitch and moan to high @#(* if it doesn’t happen. What happens to Syracuse after he leaves will be interesting to see.

    I’m more curious to see what comes of Louisville. I suspect they join the NC State/FSU/Maryland (under Gary) group. Yes, I know MD is leaving, but I think Louisville will just take their place.

    I’d like to see the game actually called by the rules. Duke’s combination of hand checking and flopping has been really bad for college basketball. That is not defense yet somehow it is held up as the epitome of it. Call the game like it is written in the books and I think it’d be better.

    Basketball infuriates me due to officiating. I’d argue that there’s not a game in American sports where an official more directly impacts the game (including baseball with the called balls and strikes).

  3. ncsu1987 10/11/2013 at 10:43 AM #

    “So what happens when they review the play and see that there wasn’t a foul at all?”

    Answer: pretend otherwise

    Alpha: I agree. Must be a big headache among the conference PTB re: what to do with Syracuse/Louisville. If I’m L’ville especially, I’m worried. As soon as it starts happening, Pitino/Boeheim need to scream bloody murder. The blues have enjoyed an unprecedented run of collusion with the front office. They have accepted the fact that they will have to actually beat each other as the price of automatic bias against the rest of the league.

  4. Alpha Wolf 10/11/2013 at 11:07 AM #

    Basketball infuriates me due to officiating. I’d argue that there’s not a game in American sports where an official more directly impacts the game (including baseball with the called balls and strikes).

    Can’t argue with that. They are right up there with international football in their capricious self-determined interpretations of what “the rules” are and it varies from team to team and game to game.

  5. Tyler_Durden 10/12/2013 at 7:19 AM #

    Illegal contact caused by the swinging of the elbow(s) that occurs above or below the shoulders of an opponent is a common, flagrant 1 or flagrant 2 personal foul. Such contact no longer requires a minimum of a flagrant 1 personal foul when it occurs above the shoulders of an opponent.
    **********************************
    I laughed at this. Richard Howell was just called for touching tyler handsbrough.

    Thank God ACC refs study up on those tendencies!

  6. 1time 10/12/2013 at 10:10 AM #

    NEWS FLASH: The NCAA is following The NBA’s lead.

    Really? wow. Now, who could have ever seen that coming???

    The thing about the charge rule is that it was allowed to be openly abused and turned totally around, many years ago, by a certain Head Coach within our own ACC. That rule was originally intended to protect the offensive player when he or she had already established a clear lane, and beyond that, was then rendered defenseless when leaving the floor in mid air. But, a certain former ACC Head BB Coach figured out a way to pervert that rule, instead of playing smart defense, he began teaching his players to simply lay down, to flop like fish, in places all over the BB court.

    The thing about all of that, is the charge was already a difficult/judgement call, and the new interpretation of the rule that was then necessitated by all of that flopping in every area of the BB court, is that it did away with what was pretty much universal, relatively (kinda) black and white, while creating tons of gray areas and even more room for human error when left totally up to the personal discretion of the officiating crews.

    The sad part is that good BB players have always been able to play good, sound, and intelligent defense, all within the rules as they were originally intended. It’s just that someone, long ago, decided that he was going to abuse the rules, to do it differently, and teach them to merely lay down out on the BB court instead of continuing to just play good defense.

    Thanks Dean.

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