NCAAW
Mechelle Voepel 9y

Proposed NCAA changes a positive step for women's hoops

Women's College Basketball, Baylor Lady Bears, Connecticut Huskies, Tennessee Lady Vols, Notre Dame Fighting Irish, South Carolina Gamecocks, Maryland Terrapins, Louisville Cardinals, Florida State Seminoles, Princeton Tigers

We all know there is no magic wand to be waved that just makes basketball instantly and demonstratively more thrilling to watch. So the point here is not to say, "Hey, look! A improved product is definitely on the way next college season!"

But ... the changes approved by the NCAA Women's Basketball Rules committee -- specifically, the move to four 10-minute quarters, and the accompanying alterations to the bonus situation and timeouts -- should be positive steps.

That doesn't mean lousy, foul-plagued, sloppy games aren't still going to be lousy, foul-plagued, sloppy games. But in what you can call a continual quest to upgrade women's hoops on all levels, these changes are a part of a larger mindset to make the game more pleasing to the players who are participating and the fans watching.

Florida State's Sue Semrau, president of the Women's Basketball Coaches Association, said there was very widespread support among her colleagues for these changes, which still require final approval by the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel. (That's expected to come in June.)

"For me, watching basketball, I want to see the action," Semrau said. "I don't want to see a lot of timeouts, free throws. And I believe with these changes, we can provide more action."

The topic of moving to four quarters -- which matches the high school, WNBA and international formats -- has been discussed for several years among the college coaches.

Semrau said the WBCA developed a playing rules and officiating committee -- chaired by Kentucky coach Matthew Mitchell and Western Athletic Conference deputy commissioner Connie Hurlbut -- to more clearly present the coaches' collective voice to the NCAA.

Richmond coach Michael Shafer, chair of the NCAA women' basketball rules committee, said, "I know that the stakeholders in the game have researched this and looked at it, and it's been gaining momentum as the years have passed. This year when it came to the committee, we really felt like this was the best for our game."

Shafer also stressed that the changes aren't just cosmetic, and it's important to see them in context with each other.

"We were looking at the four quarters part and parcel with the fouls situation, where we reset at the end of the quarter," Shafer said. "As well as the timeout situation. That whole package was important; it wasn't just a four-quarter issue. We felt that you'd have longer paces of flow in games, which is what we are trying to get at for quite some time as a committee."

Now, you might be jumping up and down and yelling at this point, "Wait a minute! How will any of this change anything if officiating doesn't "improve?"

That's a continual lament of women's basketball fans: that the level of officiating hasn't kept pace with the players' increased athleticism and skill level.

Without trying to sidestep that topic, I'll say this: There is no sport -- pro or college -- in which officiating isn't constantly tagged as needing improvement. In other words, universally fans tend to be annoyed by officials and judge them deficient. This is not to say that women's hoops doesn't have to continue to upgrade in that area, too. It does.

But improving the aesthetics of the sport is a multipronged, never-finished process. If these changes help in that regard -- which, I admit, might be difficult to empirically measure quickly -- then it's worth it to implement them.

Also, it really just makes sense for women's college hoops to eliminate some of the differences with the WNBA that really don't need to exist.

Indiana Fever coach Stephanie White, who won a national championship while playing at Purdue and has been both a player and coach in the WNBA, applauded the proposed changes.

"It's good for the college game, but it also helps those players who are going to move on to the professional level," White said. "When you change the foul structure and the timeouts, it is an adjustment for coaches when you think about strategy and substitution patterns and usage of your timeouts. But it should be easy to adapt to and actually exciting for the coaches."

White pointed out that structural changes, though, obviously don't mean much if they aren't accompanied by better basketball. To that end, she hopes these changes spark more dialogue about how to improve play at both ends of the court.

"One of the things I've noticed over the last few years is there are a lot of teams that play zone because they're so worried about how the game is called," White said. "Versus teaching how to play man-to-man the right way without fouling. I feel like when we talk about 'growing our game,' a lot of the talk is about offense, and that's very important. But I think we need to keep developing our game defensively, as well.

"And when you look at the college programs that have been successful year after year after year, the way they play is much more free-flowing. Helping players learn more how to play the game instead of just running plays is part of what helps grow the game at every level."

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