Hopefully K-State fans won’t be forced to watch the new rules that NCAA is implementing into the National Invitational Tournament this season.
The Wildcats need to beat Baylor to feel pretty confident about not playing in the NIT, but whether K-State is playing in it or not, it will look a bit differently.
The NCAA is changing four rules in NIT games this year including a further three point line, wider free throw lanes, a shot clock resetting to 20 after an offensive rebound and the game will be played in four 10 minutes quarters rather than two 20 minutes halves.
Now I do realize that these are just changes to see if these could work in the real games, but I just don’t see any of these being great ideas.
I’ll start with the first one.
I don’t know why we need to move the three point line any further. They moved it back from the women’s three point line, which I think makes sense, but any further and we are about to hit NBA lines. This just doesn’t seem like a very good idea to me and to try it on NIT team’s shooters who aren’t great anyways seems a bit pointless.
Secondly, the wider free throw lane seems like the three point line rule. It is an unnecessary rule change just to say they changed something. I’m sure they’ll say that the big guys are too crammed in the lane, but it’s a fight for a rebound and I think they should keep the free throw lanes at the same distance they are now.
If a team gets an offensive rebound, why should they be punished with less time to shoot than normal. Part of the reason to get an offensive board is to get another possession so I feel like this doesn’t do the offense justice when they get a rebound. Again, I just don’t see this working either and it’s just a dumb rule.
Finally, this one seems the most logical out of any of them. If you think of any basketball game outside of men’s college basketball, it is played in quarters so why shouldn’t they do it too. I thought it would be bad for the college women’s game when they changed it recently, but I actually really like it. I think the game moves better and wouldn’t mind seeing the change in the men’s game as well.
I’ll be interested to see how these changes look and how they change the game. I hope most of them fail because they would not make the quality of games any better in my opinion.
Avery Osen is a graduate student in mass communications. The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Collegian. Please send comments to opinion@kstatecollegian.com.
