As early as December — barely a month into the college basketball season — the stats were already damning the college basketball season as likely to be one of the slowest. Sure enough, it came to pass.
Everyone has their favorite reasons. Lack of skill by incoming players — which goes in several directions. To the pernicious effect of AAU basketball in this era and all the societal blame that follows. Or that it necessitates coaches of those particular teams to slow the game down to give them a better chance to compete.
The increased emphasis on defense, coupled with the rising trend of statistical analysis and film scouting to have players in better position. Correlated with that is the use of offensive efficiency which values the possessions and slows things down on the offensive end as well.
An obvious issue has been the reversal of the emphasis on the block/charge from the previous season.
The previous record for sluggish pace was set just two seasons ago with 65.9 possessions per 40 minutes in 2012-13, which led to the lowest-scoring season since 1952. The reaction last season was a sweeping crackdown on contact with the ballhandler and a block/charge interpretation that was friendlier to the offense. It appeared that coaches, fans, media, and officials had accepted this new approach in the college game. At the beginning of last season, fouls were called in bunches, pace and scoring increased significantly, and the reaction wasn’t completely negative. The games were choppy and full of fouls, but we could all look forward to the day when there were fewer called as players and coaches adjusted, and the game would emerge more free-flowing and with fewer obnoxious defenders sliding in to take obnoxious charges.
And fewer fouls were called as the season progressed, just as it happens in every season, but then everything ground to a halt in tournament play. The postseason tournaments were played at a pace slower than even the previous record-breaking season. This year, the sport is picking up where it left off in March with what is probably the slowest-paced start to the season in the sport’s history. (We obviously don’t have data going back far enough to know definitively, but realistically, only some pre-shot clock years in the early 80’s are possible competition.)
Coaches howled about the block/charge change after last season and it was revoked for the previous season. Guess what happened? Less twos, more threes.
Strong evidence to support this idea is that teams are struggling to score inside the arc much more than they did a year ago. Last season at this time, players across the country made 48.7 percent of their two-point attempts. This season, that number has plummeted to 47.4 percent. Additionally, teams are taking fewer of those shots. Last season, teams devoted 32.5 percent of their field goal attempts to three-pointers early in the season. This year, that’s risen to 34.0 percent.
It seems reasonable that the fear of a charge has teams increasingly avoiding the paint and hunting for a good jump shot, and that’s leading to longer possessions. If so, any change in the shot clock is going to have to come with a plan to reduce the incentive for secondary defenders to stand in the lane and get run over.
There is no indication that the return to being more NBA-esque or offensive friendly viewings of the block/charge rule will be coming to pass. Instead, the likely result will be a reduction of the shot clock from 35 to 30 seconds.
“Now there’s a real decent chance,” [NCAA rules committee chairman and Belmont coach Rick] Byrd said. “It’s pretty evident a lot more coaches are leaning that way. The opinion of coaches on the shot clock has moved significantly to reducing it from 35 to 30. And all indicators are pointing toward that.”
The rules committee will meet May 12-15 in Indianapolis and review all the data and surveys on the matter from this past season. The NIT, CBI and CIT postseason tournaments all experimented with the 30-second shot clock this past March. The rules committee can change rules every odd year.
“I think it’s fair to say the buzz about the game is that scoring in the 50s can be ugly,” Byrd said. “There’s a lot of talk about it — more coverage than ever before. All of that has created acceptance from the coaches’ side.”
Byrd said coaches, fans and media are expecting the rules committee to do something that impacts scoring.
The problem is — and this is my opinion based on what I saw in the NIT and CBI games I watched — is that it isn’t going to do too much good. The 3-point line will remain the same, the lane won’t be widened to create any additional room under the basket. Heck, it isn’t even a given that the block/charge arc will be extended from 3- to 4-feet.
The moving the clock up a few seconds will create a extra possessions, but that will be offset for plenty of teams by turnovers and empty possessions.
The other thing, is that absent any other changes, it will be a greater incentive for teams to emphasize defense even further. Ramp up pressure in the backcourt. Clutch and grab inside to prevent getting the ball inside for a big man to post up. Use more of a packline defense to force teams to pass along the perimeter, and just hoist jump shots as the clock winds down because there is no room to work the ball inside. Teams don’t have to play defense as long, so there is less chance for a breakdown.
Teams don’t attack inside as much because the incentives aren’t worth it. There isn’t enough space, and the way the college game is called, it simply doesn’t give sufficient freedom of movement.
I love college basketball. Heck, I really like good defensive teams like Virginia that often executes with such precision that is almost hypnotic. Too often, though, what you see are a lot of defense first teams that just count on officials getting tired of calling everything. Mucking things inside to make teams unwilling to go inside if there is no reward.
If college basketball is serious about increasing offense, then the shot clock is the least of the issues. All it is, is just the easiest thing to do.
That brings back memory of banging the keys of our old Underwood typewriter. Thing weighed a ton.
Things have sure changed a lot in a couple decades.
None of these teams we play have any feelings toward Pitt at all. You got to have 1 or 2 teams(schools) that truly hate you.
For that reason, much as I don’t really like it, Pitt and WVCC need to start playing again.
They at least hate us.
It’s still ranking #11 of biggest rival games.
We can’t just throw that away.
The 2009 Backyard Brawl was the most watched game in the history of ESPN2.”
Too much history in this series of hated rivals, not to play this game.
Still, I don’t even want to play them in croquet!
PSU scandal free for thirty years? State Police did not enter State College and State College and Campus Police were to take FB offenders to Joe and he would decide who was charged. You can get away with that in a small isolated rural town, not in an urban setting. No issues off field; none you knew about back then.
As we saw they control the police and even had the District Attorney who was investigating……just disappear off the FACE OF THE EARTH !!
So only God (and in this case the Devil) know what was going on in Creepy Valley all those decades.
I would not say that school was clean in recruiting. They just weren’t caught. As many weren’t. With 125 division 1 programs, my sense is that there are probably 80 shades of grey with recruiting and I have no problem with it. Call it what it is and be a realist. These kids are athlete students.
I heard a funny comment last week on Mike and Mike. They said that if you are a qb going to college, Urban Meyer is the best coach for that. Did I miss something? Who has he coached that has been an nfl star? Seriously, I can’t think of one. Is it all about perception. Maybe we get some defenders based on our new guy! We surely didn’t with the quarterback whisperer.
And I would think Sandusky was engaged in that stuff long prior to 1998.
Here’s something that was in 1990.
U.S. President George H. W. Bush praised the group as a “shining example” of charity work in a 1990 letter,[5] one of that president’s much-promoted “Thousand points of light” encouragements to volunteer community organizations.[6] Citing Sandusky’s work with The Second Mile charity to provide care for foster children, then U.S. Senator Rick Santorum honored Sandusky with an Angels in Adoption award in 2002.[7]
Anybody hear of the Franklin Boystown scandal.
Makes you wonder, how deep does this Rabbit Hole goes ?
Sorry thing about it though was the only people who got the game were the city slickers in Pittsburgh. Plus you had to own a radio. Those hillbillies in West Virginia were still trying to get electricity into their shacks back then let alone a radio to use the juice once a line was run up in der hollow.
Seton Hall transfer guard Sterling Gibbs remains the biggest name available in college basketball ‘free agency’, if you will. While numerous schools have pursued Gibbs to this point, he recently trimmed his list of potential schools. The good news is that the Panthers have made the cut, per ESPN’s Jeff Borzello:
Seton Hall transfer Sterling Gibbs tells ESPN his final list is Pittsburgh, Ohio State, Connecticut, Baylor, North Carolina State and VCU.
— Jeff Borzello (@jeffborzello) May 5, 2015
We could then sit Robinson.
And that would be Golden !!!
His issues go way back before that and if we could ever get to the truth, you would probably see that his behavior started before he was hired at that school. C’mon now, read and study the data related to the perversion and you will understand it doesn’t manifest late in life. It clearly was a black eye much earlier and I understand their head coaches predicament of telling the truth in the 80’s or trying to sweep it under the carpet. It is an ethical dilemma. He failed the ethical standard in my opinion. Sorry.
The Freeh Report was commissioned by the university and it only asked them to do 2 things. Understand that they did not ask them to investigate how long or when that stuff started and who knew what. You have to read critically. Most people believe the Freeh Report was the end all and turned to the juicy stuff. The most important part of the report was the first couple of paragraphs where they wrote the scope of the assignment by the school. It was well focused to NOT give them an opportunity to investigate. If that school wanted to really know what happened, they would have told Freeh to investigate everything. C’mon man! This is why the whole thing was a farce and continhues to be.
So in the other words…the ‘fix was in’ before the investigation even began.
Typical whitewash.
This is how nuts the university is. If link doesnt work go to the site. Hilarious. Think they could cover up booster stuff. Just sue the facts out of existence. As Churchill said ‘history belongs to the victor.’
The issue was that the type of players recruited by JoePa was more than sufficient for his first 30 years or so. The did very well on and off the field. Then all of a sudden, they couldn’t compete on the field, which caused them to recruit different types (and go to different areas) and resulted in a lot of off-the-field issues …. much, much more than what they ever had experienced before.
Paul Zeise @PaulZeise
#Pitt guard Josh Newkirk has knee surgery. Will be out 4-6 months. Could still be ready for start of season
The surgery corrected Newkirk’s lateral meniscus along with a micro fracture on the outside part of his left knee. He is expected to miss to miss the next 4-6 months of workouts.
“We expect Josh to make a full recovery and rejoin his teammates for the upcoming 2015-16 season,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “The surgery was a success, and we know that Josh will work hard during the rehabilitation period.”
Newkirk averaged 5.9 points, 2.7 assists and 1.3 rebounds in 34 games this past season.
NFL finally ruled that deflate gate did have substance and that Brady was ‘generally aware’ that the balls were deflated
A paranoid head coach, could and would cover that stuff up in the 80’s but not today. If there is anyone doubting the paranoia of a P5 head coach, please speak up. Our new guy, won’t let media in because he is paranoid about who he can trust and what will leak out and plays and…keep going.
He’s going to wear out his welcome….fast.
In 1977 he founded his Pedo front, the 2nd Mile.
I’d be willing to bet, it’s been going on since AT LEAST 1977, if not before then.
He probably concocted that idea after showering, entrapping several boys well before then, and then got the idea to start mass marketing for future prospects.
Dirtbag scum should have got the Death Penalty !
aren’t you glad you posted that at 9am.
Synopsis……Cornhole had to have known that the AG’s office was investigating Pedo State(I think a Pitt Law grad was the leading investigator in AG’s office). And what the ramifications were going to be to their football program if the allegations proved to be true. And what opportunity/advantage that would give Pitt in the recruiting game.
So why did Cornhole dismantle Pitt’s football program in late 2010 ? Which resulted in Pitt’s program being in a state of utter upheaval at the same time as PSU’s, resulting in not being able to capitalize on Pedo State’s self-inflicted wounds.
And that took a unique talent to manage that.
What happened at PSU would not happen anywhere else, so it is mutually exclusive.
In other words, thing Greg Oden.
But what Penn State did, created a whole new line…a Pedo line with corrupted morals and sanctioning of child rape.
A cover-up like many know designed to protect the school’s image and keep the money train rolling. Paterno’s legacy was at stake.
These heinous crimes were helped by an insular community and local media and police bought and paid for by the State. And the worship of a false idol who controlled the message, the thought and the actions of the CULT.
Without football, State College is just another poor hick town in PA.
Microfracture surgery took Amari’s Stoudimire’s game away as well. You lose your quickness a lot. Which is all Newkirk has going for him.
Tough break, between that and having to sit behind the Pet.
Also huffdaddy excellent post on branding which is what the false idol did with his “Penn state way” garbage that the cultists still believe, smart but warped. Wish I had been in that class.
Free Range Blatherites. H2P
West Virginia State Police said they responded to a domestic violence call about 6 p.m. Sunday at a Morgantown, W.Va., apartment. That is when Haughton-James, 22, originally of Plantation, Fla., was arrested. He was taken to North Central Regional Jail in Greenwood, W.Va., and faces one count of felony burglary.
A jail spokeswoman confirmed that Haughton-James posted bond Tuesday. (No couches were reported being burned – yet) ikr
“I have been made aware of the situation,” coach Dana Holgorsen said in a statement released by the university. “I am gathering the facts at this time and will to continue to monitor. I have no further comment at this time.”
Haughton-James is subject to disciplinary actions under the student conduct code.
That disciplinary action may be cleaning up after a couch is burned – stay tuned…
“He just wants to make some visits to make sure he made the right decision. I guess Penn State took that as a decommitment,” Novak said.
Sanders has been to Pitt a few times, but also has scholarship offers from Ohio State, Alabama and LSU, among others.
“I told him that I thought it was too early to make a decision last summer,” Novak said.
I guess the Pedo State cult isn’t happy that Mr. Sanders has a wondering eye. Here’s hoping Miles is receiving good advice – I believe coach Novak can be considered a “good” advisor.
People will respect your character more than your accomplishments (except UPitt). A key to character is trust. I think the Pedo State FB program has demonstrated they are “lacking” character, from top to bottom. Maybe Miles sees the difference (HCPN vs Franlinsteen).
HTP and good character!
A few years ago, Challingsworth committed to Toledo but then recommitted to Pitt a few days later when HCPC offered. This is just one example of handful when Pitt flipped someone … and then, there were 2 that PSU flipped fro us (Bowers and Givens) in the week before LOI earlier this year.
This is why I don’t get upset when a Tony Collins or anyone else visits others. It is obvious that they committed too early, and sometime it works for us and sometimes it works against us.
Heck, Terrell Pryor committed to JD as a soph .. so not only did he change schools, he changed sports.
Wait….hasn’t Pitt Football been starting “females” for the last 5 seasons?? If not it seems like it. Heyyy-yoooo.
Women should be given great opportunity, so I disagree. I love watching women broad-casters and commentators. Plenty of males coach women’s basketball.
P.S. —- Larry Fitzgerald shocked PSU coaches when he chose Pitt, basically because he visited by Coincidence. LeSean McCoy was all set for Miami even after his injury, but he came to Pitt because he felt so much love from Wannstedt, etc.
…..Tino Sunseri was all-set to go to Louisville, but luckily his “Legacy” School made him an offer and he flipped. (lol)
P.S. people said Pitt has no “Identity” …. I rock my Pitt gear all over, and people always comment on it. People I meet think the classic “Script” is Sexy-As-Heck.
I get a lot of Blair, Young, And Fields in that Elite 8-loss comments. People still joke that we ruined their 2010-2011 Brackets to me!
….Larry Fitz, McCoy, Revis, and now Donald comments about football, and sometimes even people mention the all-timers like Dorsett and Marino.
Big-time football guys always poke-fun about why Antonio Bryant was such a headcase / and what was wrong with Jon Baldwin and how they never panned-out in the NFL!
Dunno why some don’t feel that same love I always seem to get for Pitt. Maybe one must dole-it-out to get it in-return, as I’m a junkie for college sports from Spokane to Miami, Bangor, Maine to Tucson (go Cats!) Arizona.
Same thing for the recent UF and Bama college national champs.
Yes, you are correct that low scores in college BB are due somewhat to the ball-control offenses. However, don’t tell me that UVa is not good defensively, or that Duke didn’t play MUCH better D in the NCAAs than they did in reg season. (that was one of the first things Coach K said was the key … their commitment to defense in the NCAAs.)
It was a situation where you just have to be able to handle all the hands and the checking,” Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan said. “There was more body contact in this game than any game we played all year, and I just feel sorry for my guys that all of the sudden a game was like that, and I think they’re struggling with that a little bit.”
Even though Kaminsky schooled Okafor to draw both his third and fourth fouls early in the second half, Wisconsin couldn’t pull away from an aggressive Duke defense that allowed only 55 points a game in the five contests leading to the final.
Wisconsin shot 41 percent — 7 percentage points under its season average.
Sports go in cycles and we have endured the near bottom. Not as bad as it could be but we certainly deserve an upward bounce.
In Kansas they still use Royal Elite typewriters! Hard to get hold of any rule breaking story when there’s no computers or internet access there!!!