NCAA aproves moving back 3-point line

INDIANAPOLIS – College basketball players might want to start practicing longer shots.\nThe men’s basketball rules committee approved a measure Thursday that would move the 3-point line back one foot in 2008, from 19 feet 9 inches to 20 feet 9 inches. If approved by the playing rules oversight committee on May 25, it will mark the first major alteration to the 3-point shot since its adoption in the 1986-87 season.\nThe move comes after more than a decade of debate about whether to extend the line. The extended line has been used on an experimental basis in some early-season tournaments and has been shown to cause no dramatic changes in shooting percentages, but it never previously had passed the rules committee for all regular-season and postseason games.\nCommittee chairman Larry Keating said two proposals had been considered. The other would have moved the line to 20 feet 6 inches, the same distance as international 3-pointers. Both are shorter than the NBA line, which is 23 feet 9 inches at the top of the key and 22 feet at its shortest point in the baseline corners.\n“We made it a point to come up with a distance that was correct for us and that didn’t necessarily mimic the international line,” Keating said.\nWomen’s rules committee chairwoman Ronda Seagraves said the 3-point line will remain unchanged in women’s basketball, and Bruce Howard, spokesman for the National Federation of State High School Associations, said he’s unaware of any discussion about changing it on the prep level. High schools also use the 19 foot 9 inch distance.\nThe new men’s rule would impact all three college divisions, and Keating expects the oversight committee to pass the proposal in three weeks.\n“It has passed... for the most part unless there are financial or safety issues, so, yes, I think it will be approved,” he said.\nThe reason for delaying the change until 2008 is money.\nKeating said it was unfair to force schools to add a surprise expenditure this year, since most budgets already have been approved.\nBut Keating expressed little doubt a change to the 3-point line eventually will come.\n“I like to say the day that it passed was the day we began discussing moving it back,” Keating said. “The basic percentages haven’t changed. I think it’s safe to say you might see some reversal on that (percentages) for men.”\nHe also believes it’s necessary to create more space between perimeter and post players, and it could help the rules committee eliminate some of the more physical play – something it has tried to reduce over the past several years.\nIn a similar move, the committee also approved a measure that would change the way players line up on free throws. Rebounders would have to move back one spot on the floor, following the same rules women’s basketball teams currently use.\nBut the committee rejected adding the arch underneath the basket for charge-block calls, a line the NBA uses, in part because it believed there would be too many lines on the court.\nIt also passed measures that would allow officials to use replay monitors when trying to determine flagrant fouls and to assess who started a fight. In addition, it announced that next year’s points of emphasis will include the block-charge calls underneath the basket, enforcement of the coaches’ box and palming.\nThe women’s rules committee passed a measure requiring officials to use replay when a fight breaks out. Current rules allow officials to use replay monitors, but do not make it mandatory.\nThe points of emphasis for the women’s committee next year will focus on traveling, unsportsmanlike behavior and enforcement of the legal guarding position. The committee also rewrote the rules about technical fouls, requiring them to be counted toward individual and team fouls.