Viewers might need a magnifying glass or at least a big-screen TV to notice the rules differences in the 2002-03 men's and women's basketball season, as compared to last season.

Although the NCAA Men's and Women's Basketball Rules Committees adjusted some rules to speed up the game, they made few major changes at their annual meeting April 29-May 2 in Palm Harbor, Florida.

"We discussed at length many items that were submitted to us, but for the most part we didn't change things much because we thought the rules were in good shape," said Art Hyland, chair of the men's committee and coordinator of officiating for the Big East Conference.

Perhaps the most major of the changes made for both the men's and women's game was an adoption of a men's experimental rule from the past season. With the change, when the bonus is in effect, no free throws will be awarded to the offended team for a foul committed by a member of the team in control of the ball. Instead of shooting free throws as under the previous rule, play will be restarted by the offended team being awarded possession at a designated spot. The change makes the penalty for such fouls during the bonus the same as that for player-control fouls. Such a foul will continue to count toward disqualification of the offender and toward the team-foul total.

Both committees eliminated the requirement that mutual consent of coaches be obtained for use of a composite ball. Previously, unless both coaches consented, a leather ball had to be used. The change came about because the NCAA Division I men's and women's tournament committees plan to use such a ball in their respective championships next year.

The rules committees also changed the procedure for putting the ball back in play after a simultaneous personal foul is called when there is team control or when a team has possession of the ball for a throw-in. Under the change, play shall resume with a throw-in from a designated spot awarded to that team with no reset of the shot clock.

Men's rules changes

Other changes exclusive to the men's game include:

Requiring that the two lane spaces closest to the free-throw shooter remain unoccupied for all free throws. The purpose is to reduce the chances for taunting and distracting the free-throw shooter.

Adding exhibition games in Divisions II and III to the list of games that must use the experimental rules for the coming season. In previous seasons, only "certified" games that occurred before January 1 of a given year used the experimental rules. Since those games were played almost exclusively by Division I teams, almost no data could be collected from Division II or III. The committee wanted to correct this because the playing rules are the same for all divisions, with only a few exceptions.

Creating three experimental rules that will be used in games mentioned above: (1) widening the free-throw lane by 2 feet on each side (a repeat of this past season's experimental rule); (2) moving the three-point line 9 inches behind the current three-point line to create a new experimental distance of 20 feet, 6 inches; and (3) relocating the free-throw-lane block in the spot between the first free-throw-lane space adjacent to the end line and the next lane space on both sides of the lane. The temporary lines would be added to playing courts by use of tape, shoe polish or temporary paint.

* Recommending to the Division I Championships/Competition Cabinet and the Divisions II and III Championships Committees that rim testing for rebound elasticity, which only was recommended previously, become mandatory for the 2004-05 season. The reasoning is that the committee wants the ball to rebound off the basket ring more uniformly. Research by the National Association of Basketball Coaches has shown that rebound elasticity, which by rule must lie within a certain range, varies greatly even between baskets on either end of the same court. Such a test and any necessary adjustment takes minutes. The cost of the necessary equipment is about $1,300 but schools and conferences can easily share one piece of equipment between them.

Points of emphasis

The women's committee, which made no major changes exclusive to its game, will continue to work with hand checking and post play as points of emphasis for 2002-03.

"We have seen improvement in the areas of hand checking and post play over the past three years," said Amy Ruley, chair of the women's committee and coach at North Dakota State University. "We're going to continue to work on the foundations of the points of emphasis by adding directives for offensive and defensive displacement for hand checking. For post play, we also will be adding directives about offensive displacement."

The men's committee will continue its point of emphasis on reducing rough play for the third straight year, focusing special attention on rough play by the offensive player in the low post. Another point of emphasis will be that intentional fouls and fouls committed off the ball in end-of-game situations must be called as described in the rules. The last point of emphasis for the men's game is that officials shall ensure that a player has possession of the ball before granting a timeout. If it is not clear that a player on the team requesting a timeout has possession, officials shall err on the side of not granting the timeout.

Other highlights

Men's and Women's Basketball Rules Committees
April 29-May 2/Palm Harbor, Florida

In addition to the rules changes described in the accompanying article, the NCAA Men's and Women's Basketball Rules Committees approved other changes, including the following. For a complete list of men's and women's rules changes, refer to NCAA Online at www.ncaa.org.

Men and women

Rule 4-18.5, 4-18.6, 9-8.1, 9-8.3: The count for a three-second violation will be in effect during an interrupted dribble. This makes officiating consistent for any three-second violation. Previously, the three-second count stopped during an interrupted dribble but continued during a loose ball.

Rule 4: Added a definition that an inadvertent whistle occurs anytime an official blows the whistle as an oversight and does not have a call to make. In such a case, there shall be no reset of the shot clock and the ball shall be put back into play to the team that was in control of the ball before the ball became dead by the whistle. The alternating-possession arrow will be used with a reset when there was no player or team control at the time of the whistle. When an inadvertent whistle happens during a throw-in, the ball goes back to the throw-in team at the same designated spot.

Rule 5-9.10: Substitution shall not be allowed when an official stops the game clock after a successful field goal in the last 59.9 seconds of the second half; or in the last 59.9 seconds of any extra period when an administrative mistake or inadvertent whistle occurs. By rule, substitutions were allowed in these infrequent situations in previous years, which the committees felt was not fair.

Women

Rule 5-12.2: A 75-second timeout in games not involving electronic media or a 30-second timeout in games involving electronic media shall be charged to and may be used by a team that is granted an excessive timeout. Previously, a team could use 60 seconds for a granted excessive timeout. The offending team would continue to be charged with an indirect technical foul. In the men's game, the penalty will continue to be two free throws to the offended team and the ball will be returned to the point of interruption. In the women's game, the penalty includes a change of possession.

Rule 10-12, 10-16: The distinction between a flagrant personal foul and a flagrant technical foul will be eliminated. The offending player will be ejected; two free throws will be granted to any member of the offended team; and the ball will be returned to play at the closest spot to the foul. Previously, whether or not the ball was live or dead determined which type of flagrant foul was called. Now, the effect will be the same regardless of whether the ball is live or dead.