Defense Rewarded by NCAA

The NCAA announced a rules change that will reward men’s basketball players whose defensive hustle forces held-ball situations.

No matter which way the possession arrow is pointing at the time, the defense will get the ball when one of its players forces a held ball. The ball will be awarded at the closest designated spot to where the held ball occurred.

The NCAA Men’s Basketball Rules Committee approved that change and others during its annual meeting last weekend, at Isle of Palms, S.C.

“The committee feels that this change will reward outstanding defensive plays that in the past went unrewarded if the possession arrow belonged to the offense,” Herb Kenny, athletic director at Wesleyan University and rules committee chairman, said in a news release.

Giving momentum to the move toward a change was Kentucky’s 86-85 overtime victory over Stanford in the semifinals of this year’s national championships. Stanford forced a held ball late in the game, but Kentucky retained the ball on the possession arrow.

The alternate-possession rule still would apply in situations in which the defense didn’t cause the held ball, such as if players from each team simultaneously knocked a ball out of bounds.

Additionally, an experimental rule designed to shorten the time needed to play the last few minutes of televised games will be used in designated games. Full-length television timeouts will be called at the first dead ball after the 16-, 12-, 8- and 4-minute marks in each half. Teams would have five timeouts of 30 seconds each. The first called by either team would be extended to a full timeout. Each team would be able to carry four of the shortened timeouts into the second half.