A Q-and-A on how to improve basketball overall

We found this fascinating -- an entry about how to improve basketball (and sorry for the All CAPS but that's the way it was posted).

Great questions and answers about college basketball and how to help the game overall!
Don Casey
The Temple of Zones
September 4, 2009

A good friend of mine Dan Peterson dropped 10 'loaded' questions on a college administrator. They call these 'tendentious' questions in Italian, which means there is no perfectly correct answer and any answer you give is fraught with trouble. Here goes:

1. Could NCAA schools go to a 60-game regular season schedule?

PROBABLY NOT. UNLIKE THE PROFESSIONAL RANKS, ON CAMPUSES AND IN COMMUNITIES, THE OVERLAP WITH FOOTBALL AT THE FRONT END AND BASEBALL AT THE BACK END CAN HURT ALL SPORTS INVOLVED. THERE ARE ONLY SO MANY FANS IN EACH COMMUNITY THAT WILL SUPPORT SPORTS. MANY ARE DEVOTED TO THEIR LOCAL COLLEGE AND ATTEMPT TO SUPPORT THE HIGH VISIBILITY TEAMS. WITH THE 60 GAME SCHEDULE BEGINNING GAMES ON OCTOBER 15, A LOT OF FOOTBALL IS YET TO BE PLAYED AND WILL IMPACT FAN SUPPORT AT BASKETBALL. THE SAME WILL OCCUR FOR BASEBALL DURING THE LAST 1/3 OF THE BASKETBALL SEASON. LIKE YOU, I DO NOT BELIEVE THAT ACADEMICS WILL SUFFER AS A RESULT. AS A BASKETBALL NUT, I WOULD LOVE THE 60 GAME SEASON. ON CAMPUS, THE EXPANSION TO 60 GAMES WOULD RUN YOUR STAFFS CRAZY, AGAIN DUE TO THE OVERLAP AND MEDIA RELATIONS, SPORTS MEDICINE, GAME MANAGEMENT, ETC. STAFFS WOULD BE WORN MORE THAN INCREDIBLY THIN. THIS IS PARTICULARLY TRUE AT THE MID-MAJOR LEVEL.

2. Could NCAA schools go to a 48' game and 24" clock?

I DON’T KNOW IF THE QUALITY OF PLAY WOULD SUFFER IN A 48’ GAME. HOWEVER, I BELIEVE IT IS DOABLE. CERTAINLY TEAM DEPTH WOULD BECOME A GREATER FACTOR THAN IS ALREADY THE CASE. I WOULD ABSOLUTELY FIGHT THE 24’ CLOCK. THE GAME IS ALREADY STEREOTYPED TOO MUCH AND THE LIMITED CLOCK WOULD ENSURE MORE OF THE SAME. THERE ARE ONLY SO MANY MIKE D’ANTONI’S OUT THERE WHO RUN A DIFFERENT TEMPO AND ARE UNINFLUENCED BY THE CLOCK. I BELIEVE THAT THE 24’ CLOCK SENDS THE GAME INTO THE HIGH (OR SIDE) SCREEN AND ROLL 2/3 OF THE TIME AND TAKES AWAY FROM THE DEVELOPMENT OF PLAYS AND SYSTEMS THAT ARE INDIGENOUS TO TEAMS ACROSS THE SPECTRUM OF THE NCAA. SINCE THE NCAA HAS LITTLE TO NO IMPACT ON THE OLYMPIC LEVEL, USE OF THESE RULES AND DEVELOPMENT FOR THAT LEVEL OF PLAY BECOMES MOOT IN THIS DISCUSSION...

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