North Carolina State University Athletics
Sendek, Fowler Monitor NCAA Issues
7/1/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
July 1, 2004
By Tony Haynes
Raleigh, N.C. - Like most college basketball coaches, NC State's Herb Sendek would like to have a limited amount of on-court instruction time with his players during the summer months. At this time, however, the NCAA prohibits coaches from working with players this time of year. They can't even so much as walk into the gym and watch a pick-up game. Fortunately, Sendek will have a powerful ally in his corner when the NCAA Basketball Issues Committee meets in Indianapolis next week.
NC State athletics director Lee Fowler is the chairman of the issues committee, which will convene next Wednesday in Indianapolis. Among other things, Fowler says the committee will address rules that limit contact between coaches and players during the summer months. There will also be discussions relating to the activities of prospects during recruiting visits in the wake of the alleged recruiting scandals involving the Colorado football program.
As it stands now, the NCAA allows coaches to hold individual skill workouts with groups of four players for a short period of time in the spring and once class begins in the fall. In the summer months, however, any kind of basketball related activities are banned.
"I really wish - and there has been some significant discussion about this - that we were able to work with our players in the summer like we do before and after the season," Sendek said. "One of the issues that the NCAA is considering right now is simply having access to our players. For a good while, the intention was to remove coaches from players, to create a gap there. Anytime you do that, others fill that gap. I think it would be a really good thing if we were allowed even more access, even during the summer. I'm not talking about full practice, but the ability to go into the gym and help somebody with their jump shot. Those are good things."
Sendek said he recently visited with guard Tony Bethel and center Jordan Collins before the two players were about to take final exams in the first session of summer school. There are other ways he tries to keep an open line of communication going during a period of time when basketball is off limits.
"I try to connect with them on the phone," Sendek said. "Maybe we'll get a bite to eat. We try to stay together during the summer months."
Everywhere but on the basketball court.
Rule Experiments: For fairly obvious reasons, Sendek says he would probably favor proposed changes that would widen the free throw lane and push the 3-point shot back to the international distance of 20-feet, six inches. The intent of such alterations would be to reduce traffic in the paint and enhance offensive spacing on the floor to encourage more freedom of movement. Of course, those are things that come naturally to NC State in its current offense.
The NCAA will experiment with a wider lane and longer 3-point shot during exhibition games and early season exempt games this season.
"I've gone back and forth with that," said Sendek, who was named ACC Coach of the Year last season after leading his team to a second place finish in the league. "I may even be a minority of one in the ACC among coaches when I say that I'm very eager to see how that experimentation plays out with the 3-point line moving back to the international distance and the lane becoming the trapezoid. In essence, we would play with the same markings that they do in international basketball. I think I lean in favor of that. I'd like to see how it plays out in the exhibition games and exempt games, but I like opening up the court. I like the uniformity that it would give us with a game that has truly become a global game. The thing that we would have to come to terms with is that we would have to do the same thing as the women. You don't want to go to a gym and have all kinds of different lines all over the court. There has to be some uniformity in what we do."
And that could be the major sticking point since women's coaches would prefer to keep their 3-point shot at the current distance of 19-feet, six inches. The Women's Rules Committee did not approve any experimental rules for the upcoming season.
"Our committee is not in favor of moving back the 3-point line at this time," said Lynn Hickey, chair of the women's rules committee and director of athletics at Texas-San Antonio. "But we also recognize that the men's game needs to explore ways to improve play and that the best way to do that may be for them to change court markings. We support that, but we believe that if and when that happens, we don't necessarily need to change the women's markings at the same time but might do so later on, when our game is ready, much as we did with the three-point line. People need to remember that our game is much younger than the men's - we only started playing five-on-five in 1969-70, so even though we play essentially the same game we are at different points in our history and have different needs."
Most coaches agree that pushing the 3-point shot back to the international distance wouldn't necessarily curtail the number of 3-point shots taken. The goal is to allow the offense to maintain a comfortable level of spacing, something that would be difficult to achieve with a wider lane and the existing distance of the arc.
"Our research from past experimental rules shows that moving back the line does not affect the number of three-point shots taken or the percentage made, but we believe it's a necessity if we widen the lane," said Rice's Willis Wilson, chair of the men's rules committee. "Plus, the [coaches] survey shows greater support for moving back the line than ever before." In other words, don't expect one change without the other.
"I don't think I would favor doing one and not the other," Sendek said. "They talked about moving the 3-point shot back and keeping the lane the way it is. I think that would only lend to more congestion in the low post."
