Tuesday, April 05, 2005

Hoops: new arc covenant?

I smell a conspiracy........ Coaches looking to extend the 3-pt arc in hoops to bring back an era of the big man. Could this be coincidental with the potential 20-year old age limit rule? I think not. Combine the two and you know what you have - even more domination by the high majors. Think about it.

First you institute a 20-year old age limit, meaning the cream of the crop stay in college for at least 2 years. Where do they play? 95% of the time at UNC, Duke, Kansas, KY, UConn, etc...... Now, who are 90% of the high school players that have gone straight to the NBA? Big men - 6'7" and above. So if more extremely talented big-men are going to playing college ball, how do you exploit that?

You extend the 3-point arc. The game extends further out, opening things up a bit for those talented big men. Now they have room to operate. There's a double impact. Now it's harder to hit a 3-point shot. So the best of the best shooters start to stand out as well. And where do they go? The high major schools more often.

Having said all that, I could agree with extending the line anyhow. You watch Illinois chuck up 3pt shot after 3pt shot and you just start to wonder - where's the game? Then you watch the Tarholes pound it inside to May, and balance it with long-range shooting, and it works. But of course they did it with a shorter 3pt line. So it can work either way. Anything that favors team play, fundamentals and defense over 1-on-1 works for me.