By Stephen Smoot
With local teams already hitting the hardwood in exhibition games, seeking their final tune ups before the start of the season, players, coaches, and fans are seeing the first impact of significant rule changes that will affect the course of contests this year.
The first rule was suggested by the National Federation of High School Associations, an advisory body for high school sports programs across the nation.
According to the NFHSA, “in addition to awarding two foul shots for all common fouls, teams will reach the bonus when their opponent commits five fouls in each quarter and team fouls will reset at the end of each quarter. Previously, teams were awarded the one-and-one bonus when their opponents committed seven fouls in a half and two foul shots when 10 fouls were committed each half.”
NFHSA officials cited player safety as the guiding rationale, saying that injuries occur more often in rebounding situations “and saw this as an opportunity to reduce rough play during rebounds,” said Lindsay Atkinson, NFHSA director of sports.
Donnie Kopp, head coach of the Pendleton County Wildcats girls’ basketball team, expressed skepticism about the change. He anticipated that the change would lead to games lasting longer. Kopp added that coaches will have to rethink their end of game strategies as well.
Trevor Wilson, who has worked for almost 20 years as a Cabell County based high school sports official, agreed that “end of game strategies will be interesting to watch as coaches try to navigate the rule change.”
He added that “teams that are aggressive defensively, mainly using full court pressure” will see an advantage. Resetting the foul count at the end of a quarter, he said, will allow “them to stay more aggressive . . . mostly in the second and fourth quarters.”
The strategic component removed from consideration is the oft used intentional foul to stop the clock and force teams to make a one-and-one foul shot play.
Another rule change that fans will notice lies in the change of position of where the ball gets thrown in after out of bounds plays. According to the NFHSA, “When the ball is in team control in the offensive team’s frontcourt and the defensive team commits a violation, a common foul prior to the bonus, or the ball becomes dead, the corresponding throw-in by the offensive team will be at one of four designated spots determined by where the infraction took place. The designated spots are either the nearest 28-foot mark along each sideline or the nearest spot three feet outside the lane line on the end line. The one exception is when the defensive team causes a ball to be out of bounds, the throw-in shall be the spot where the ball went out of bounds.”
Kopp had no issue with this rule change, saying, “That’s okay. You won’t have to worry about getting caught in the corner.”
Wilson anticipates few issues here, except that coaches that have not yet implemented set out of bounds plays will have more strategic reason to do so now.
“It will take a few weeks for the fans to get used to this,” Kopp observed.
