NCAA Men’s Rules committee to propose increased 3 point distance & 20 second reset on offensive rebounds

The NCAA  men’s basketball rules committee is going to recommend two major rule changes for the coming 2019-20 season. The first is increasing the 3 point shot distance from it;s current 20’9″ from the center of the basket to the international distance which is 22 feet 1 3/4 inches and the second is setting of the shot clock on offensive rebounds to a 20 second time limit.

If this new distance passes it will be only be for D-1 men’s basketball for 2019-20, D-2 and D-3 in 2020-21.

The distance has been used the past two seasons in the annual NIT post season tournament. Teams shot 35.2% in the 2018-19 regular season and it dropped to 33% in the NIT this season, not a big difference. The NIT also used the reset to 20 seconds on offensive rebounds the two years.

The increase will be 1 foot 4 and 3/4 inches.

If this new distance passes now some courts could have 4 different 3 point lines, (Like possibly Expo in Portland) 19’9″ for high school, 20’9″ for women’s NCAA, 22′ 1 3/4″ for men’s NCAA and 23′ 9″ for  the NBA.

Players will not know which line to shoot from so as to shoot from the correct line.

Why the committee didn’t recommend to have the new NCAA 3 point line half the distance between the current NCAA line and the NBA distance is beyond me. That would make it 22’7″ which would make the 3 more difficult then the  22′ 1 3/4″, if that is what the committee really wants to do by moving the distance. The 5′ and 1/4″ inches would meet that objective more than the recommended increase.

The 3 point distance from the corner will be 21’65” by going with the international distance. So the only 3 point distance that will be the same and not less from the side corners lined up with the middle of the basket will be the high school distance of 19’9″ all around their 3 point line. The NBA is only 22 from the side corner from the center of the rim while it is 23’9″ until it starts to go smaller with the straight line top the end line.

Is this new 1 foot 4 3/4 inches increase in the distance is to decrease the number of threes attempted? The college game and the NBA have become more and more like 3 point contest games.

It doesn’t seem to effect the regular college season games, but when it comes to the conference tournaments or the NCAA Big Dance which are win or go home/one and done games the pressure of that suggests that “sometimes the ball seems to get bigger and heavier and the rim smaller and further away”. This can happen to teams “That live by the three, may die by the three” in the games that you have to win in the single elimination tournament high school and college games or in an elimination game of the NBA best of 7 playoffs series.

The 10 second shortened shot clock to 20 seconds from 30 seconds is like the NBA’s 14 second reset from 24 seconds.

This increase should make it harder for the defense to double down to double team the post player on the block as it will widen the floor space for the perimeter players who are facing the basket.

It should also make it harder for the help defender on dribble penetration to help and recover because of the increase distance to the 3 point line where his man who wants to shoot the three is.

However, the coaches who come up with and find the best floor spacing offensive set for the 4 players just outside the 3 point line to make it so the defense pays a big price for the open three or open layup when the defense chooses to double down and double team the back-to-the-basket post player on one of the blocks should have the best chance of being more successful in their teams 3 point shooting percentages and open layups.

Currently, for this and all the other past seasons since the 3 point shot came into the college game in 1984, I have not seen the correct and most effective floor spacing offensive set to do this at the college D-1 level or for that matter in the NBA or at the high school level since it came in there in 1987-88.

These recommended changes will next go to the NCAA basketball over site panel on June 5th, 2019.

Time and patience (neither of which come in a bottle) will tell how the increased 3 point distance and the shortened shot clock effects the game.

The material for this BLOG was written by Yahoosports writer Nick Bromberg from Yahoosports.com dated 5/10/19.