SE: A Look at MBB Rule Changes, Different Points of Emphasis for 2017-18 Season

By Corbin McGuire

Each year in NCAA men's basketball, rules are changed, implemented or emphasized differently. Two years ago, the shot clock was lowered from 35 to 30 seconds. Last season, coaches lost their ability to call timeouts in live-ball situations.

The 2017-18 season will include a number of changes and different points of emphasis as well. K-State head coach Bruce Weber, whose team hosts Northern Arizona on Monday at 7 p.m., highlighted a few of these differences in an interview with K-State Sports Extra.

Screens

A legal screen was redefined for this season to require players' feet to be no wider than shoulder width apart when setting a screen. Weber said the rule is more about screening with a "natural body position" than the shoulder-width refinement, however.

"The feet don't just have to be shoulder width apart," he said. "You can be a little further out because in a pure basketball stance your feet are usually out a little farther than your shoulders, but if you have it where you're really almost doing the splits to set a screen, now the emphasis is to call (a foul) on the screen."

Normal Basketball Move

The NCAA rules committee amended the definition of a normal basketball move, which previously required a defender to allow an offensive player enough room to shoot, pass or start a dribble, to now include enough space to pivot. By definition, this will prohibit a defender from straddling an offensive player's pivot leg.

To describe this change, Weber said the offensive player essentially has an imaginary cylinder around him that the defender cannot violate. If a defender does violate this cylinder and is knocked down by the offensive player trying to pivot, the defender should be called for the foul.

"That's the one where you get the home crowd, everyone's going nuts, it's the end of the game, you go trap them and the guy swings his elbow. Now, who are they going to call it on? Technically, if he invades his cylinder, it's supposed to be on the defense," Weber said. "Now, it's easy to say that but we'll say what happens."

Shot clock resets

When a foul or kicked ball is called against the defense, the shot clock will reset to 20 seconds or the time remaining on the shot clock, whichever is greater. Previously it reset to the full 30 seconds on fouls and 15 on kicked ball violations. Weber said the whole point of this rule change is to create more possessions and, consequently, more scoring.

"I'm not sure if that's better for the game because it does create more possessions," he said, "but I want good possessions."

Traveling

One major point of emphasis this season is to call traveling as the rule is written. What made this rule difficult to call consistently in the past, Weber said, was that the referee watching the ball handler had to focus on the offensive player's upper body for fouls. This often allowed a player to change his pivot foot without a traveling violation being called. Now, the ref watching for upper body contact will have help.

"They've really emphasized that the outside officials, or the officials down the court, are supposed to help, so you might have a guy 30 feet away calling traveling on a guy being trapped right next to the official," Weber said. "It could be in the post too. When people double the post and you watch the replay and the guy pivoted three times and he didn't dribble. On the replay, it's easy to see. Now the outside official has the responsibility and the right to call traveling on the post player."

Throw-In Spots

Weber said one of the other noticeable differences this season would be the consistency with throw-in locations in the frontcourt when the offensive team retains possession after a non-shooting foul or stoppages in the game.

This season, an imaginary line drawn from both corners of the court to each elbow of the free throw line will determine the throw-in spot. If the stoppage occurs in this area, the throw-in will occur three feet outside the nearest lane line. If it occurs outside this area, the ball will be inbounded at the nearest 28-foot hash on the sideline. Defensive deflections out of bounds will continue to be placed at the actual spot where the ball went out.

Other changes

The coach's box was extended from 28 feet to 38 feet.
Instant replay may be used to determine if a foul occurred prior to a shot clock violation.
Officials may also go to the monitor in the last two minutes of the second half or any overtime to review block/charge foul calls in or around the restricted area, but only when the decision was based on whether the defender was in or outside the restricted area.
A loose ball foul, while still considered a team-control foul, will now put the offensive team to the free throw line if it is in the bonus.
The backcourt rule now allows either team to obtain the ball in the backcourt after a defensive deflection.

Kansas State University Athletics

SE: A Look at MBB Rule Changes, Different Points of Emphasis for 2017-18 Season

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