New college basketball season brings new rules

PHOTOGRAPHER: Patrick Dodson

Marquis Wright of Siena takes a defensive stance during a practice last month at the Alumni Recreation Center.

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The basketball court is going to look different in college hoops this year. The shot clock, too.

It will sound different, as well. There will be more whistles, a lot more whistles, at least at first, something Siena basketball coach Jimmy Patsos worries about considering that foul trouble already mired his team last season.

The NCAA made a flurry of rule changes designed to open the floor and encourage more scoring. The one that received the most attention is reducing the shot clock from 35 to 30 seconds. But that rule will have the least effect on the Saints, the coach and players said.

Rules against hand-checking and bumping players cutting through the lane, and moving the restricted area under the hoop for taking charges out a foot — that will be something Siena will have to adjust to more starting with Friday’s season opener against Duke.

“They are going to call more fouls this year,” Patsos said Tuesday. “They are committed, the NCAA, to opening up the game — and I think that’s a good thing. . . . That will be an adjustment.

“We can’t foul like we did last year. We fouled a lot last year, and they called it. We’ve been working on keeping our hands down and using our feet. . . . The hand-checking, we have to be consciously working on that every day.”

The alteration of the restricted area will affect Siena’s big men, particularly Brett Bisping and Lavon Long.

“The arc is four feet instead of three,” Patsos said. “Brett takes a lot of charges, Lavon takes charges . . . four feet is a long way to get out.”

Siena center Javion Ogunyemi agreed that the two forwards will have to adjust because of the change in the restricted area and “because we foul a lot, the hand-checking.” But one of the rule changes will work in Siena’s favor.

“The 30-second, I think, will be good for us, ” he said, “because we like to run and shoot fast.”

Different teams will be affected in different ways.

UAlbany men’s basketball coach Will Brown said his team has adapted well to the hand-checking rule, but since his Great Danes play a switching man defense, he is concerned about the new restricted area.

“We’ve taken a ton of charges in practice that were called blocks,” he said. “It’s all about positioning and repositioning. It’s new. There is an adjustment period.”

BAND ON THE MOVE

When the Saints play their home opener against Loyola on Nov. 28, the Times Union Center will have a slightly different look and sound, thanks to a move that should have been the made the day Siena started playing games there.

“We’ve moved the students and the bands next to the opposing team,” Patsos said, bringing up the move as one of the changes he is looking forward to this season.

For years, the pep band and fans have been located by the home bench, and opposite of where the visiting team shoots in the second half. The fans/band will now move to the South Pearl Street side of the building, where the noise can affect the road team and shooters. The move is part of trying to beef up the homecourt advantage, Patsos said. The Saints were only 6-10 at home last season.