The rules in men’s college basketball are far from perfect.
The block/charge call, seemingly endless monitor reviews, and late-game fouling issues are just a few of the areas where tweaks could be made to enhance the overall product. The rules we have in place are what make the sport so entertaining and fun to watch, but we’d be lying to ourselves if we said there isn’t a need for improvement.
One potential change that’s recently become a topic of discussion is the movement to switch men’s college basketball from halves to quarters. For one, it would bring sport-wide consistency, as MBB is the only visible version of basketball still utilizing halves. But it would also reset team fouls after each quarter, reduce the number of commercials with fewer media timeouts, and eliminate the one-and-one free throws.
Kentucky head coach Mark Pope has already talked several times about wanting to extend the regular season to 40 games. But that’s more of a landscape-changing idea rather than a clean-and-cut rule modification. However, he’s into the idea of swapping out halves for quarters.
“I don’t know if I have a really intelligent answer on that. I do like consolidating it,” Pope recently said on The Sideline with Andy Katz. “(Men’s college basketball is) the only — not even the women — we’re the only remaining basketball entity that has halves.”
But if you ask Pope what rule change he’d like to see the most, his answer might surprise you. It’s one that makes plenty of sense, though.
“The change that I would really like to make, that I’d be super excited about? I’d like to be able to advance the ball out of timeouts,” Pope said. “I know it slows down the game, but it makes the game so much more interesting when, with 2.5 seconds or 1.5 seconds left, if you don’t have to go fullcourt, but you can advance it, you have a chance to get elite-level shots and decision-making.
“It extends the game to where you have two or three or four possessions, where in college you can only really squeeze in one because you can’t advance the ball.”
This is a rule already in place in the NBA and one that is widely loved. As a personal aside, I love the ability to advance the ball in the NBA after timeouts in late-game situations for the exact reasons Pope outlined. It creates additional drama and gives teams more opportunities to produce highlight plays and buzzer-beating outcomes. It’s much easier to craft a play with one second on the clock when the ball is at halfcourt compared to underneath the opposite basket.
Let’s make it happen, Pope.
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