Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 30, 1990 TAG: 9003300091
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Bill Brill
DATELINE: DENVER LENGTH: Medium
The NABC board voted unanimously Thursday to permit basketball officials, in critical end-of-game situations, to look at television replays.
Further, the coaches are recommending to the rules committee that the fourth official at NCAA Tournament games - he's listed as the standby - be seated next to the timer, with specific instructions to make the decision on shots that come at the buzzer.
Surely you recall the most exciting of all plays in what has been a wildly exciting tournament:
Down two points with five seconds left in regulation, Anderson, Georgia Tech's precocious freshman, dribbles the ball to the top of the key and shoots as the clock hits :00.
The ball goes into the basket. And after one official rules a 3-pointer but is overruled, Tech wins in overtime and eventually advances to the Final Four.
CBS replays appeared to indicate the shot should not have counted.
"The [3-point] line was a distraction," Notre Dame coach Digger Phelps said Thursday upon announcing the NABC board's recommendation. "The officials were concentrating on whether it was a two- or a 3-pointer, not whether it was taken in time."
Ed Steitz, the guru of college basketball rules who has been on the committee for 34 years, said the officials could have asked the opinion of the fourth official, John Moreau of Richmond, Va., but they did not.
As it stands, the timer can't say if the shot was good.
The coaches would like to have the fourth official, who is listed as a backup to be used in case of injury, sit next to the timer and have the specific duty of making the call on a last-shot situation.
With 3-point lines to worry about, the on-court officials should be relieved of that responsibility, the coaches say.
"We want the fourth official to listen for the sound," Phelps said.
The coaches also would like to use replays to determine any other critical decisions made at the end of a game, including a ball out of bounds.
The coaches also want to see the same game clocks used at all NCAA sites. The NBA clock, which lists tenths of seconds in the final minute, was a factor in the Connecticut-Clemson and Duke-Connecticut games last week in East Rutherford, N.J.
There was no NBA clock in the Superdome in New Orleans, where the Georgia Tech-Michigan State game was played.
Phelps said that while the NABC's 15-member board endorsed the NBA clocks, it feels that it is more important that the same clocks be used in all games.
The coaches also are seeking input into the distribution of the billion dollars CBS will pay the NCAA in the next seven years for the television rights to the tournament, and one theory is that some money could be allotted to putting NBA clocks in all NCAA Tournament facilities.
The other great concern of the coaches and Steitz is the last two minutes of a game, in which constant fouling and calling of timeouts combine to prolong games tremendously.
The final two minutes of Georgia Tech-Michigan State actually took 18 minutes to play.
"We don't want 38-minute games," Phelps said. "We don't want to take away the opportunity for the losing team to win. But the coaches feel something must be done."
The NABC board will make the following proposals:
All fouls in the last two minutes would be two shots; or, similar fouls would remain one-and-one, but the coach of the team whose player was fouled would have the opportunity to designate the shooter.
After 10 fouls (by a team in a half), all fouls would be two shots.
Steitz agrees there is a problem with the length of games. He said it might be resolved by limiting timeouts.
Presently, in televised games, there are eight TV timeouts and each team is allotted four others.
Steitz would limit each team to two timeouts per half. He also suggested that two shots be taken beginning with the 10th foul, one sooner than the coaches suggest.
Although the coaches' board wants to see the 3-point line moved back 9 inches to the international distance of 20 feet, 6 inches, Steitz is armed with statistics that would seem to argue against that.
He said, "We have the greatest game we've ever had, so why change it?"
The coaches say too many shots are taken from beyond the 19-9 stripe, but Steitz points out the success percentage has dropped from 38.4 to 36.4 since the shot was adopted in 1987.
The rules committee will announce any decisions next week.
Steitz, ever quick to stress that he has just one vote on the rules, said he believes there may be some minor changes. "There certainly will be experimentation," he said.
by CNB