Line change
To Andy Rautins, this is all one giant step in. Three-point shots are just a flick of the wrist now.
Seven hundred shots per day behind an NBA 3-point line will do that. After weeks upon weeks of target practice at the Toronto Raptors’ practice facility with Team Canada, this new white arc painted on the Manley Field House court sure feels like child’s play.
‘I was used to shooting at an NBA line all summer,’ Rautins said. ‘We got a ton of shots up, a lot of repetition. … To be honest, I haven’t even noticed a difference with the new line. Wherever the line is, I’m shooting it.’
For the first time ever ‘the line’ is migrating. In its first alteration since being implemented in 1986, the 3-point line in men’s college basketball will be one foot deeper, inflating from 19 feet, 9 inches to 20 feet, 9 inches this year. The NCAA’s goal is to space out the game, give the green light to more inside play and slowly escape a bombs-away culture.
Rautins said he and his teammates haven’t even talked about the new line. For now, the extension is an enigma. Nobody’s quite sure how much, if at all, a deeper 3-point shot will morph college basketball.
Some coaches praise the logic behind the decision with an ‘about time’ sentiment. Finally the college basketball 3-pointer is beyond that of a middle-school team. Even St. John’s head coach Norm Roberts – whose team was abysmal from downtown – is thrilled with the change. The Red Storm finished 13th of 16 Big East teams in 3-point field goal percentage last year (.333).
But Roberts believed the shallow shot was a joke in the first place – a middle-school gimmick long overdue for a change. ‘I think that if you’re going to give people an extra point for a shot, it should be a tougher shot – it should be deeper,’ Roberts said. ‘This way, it’s a little bit deeper. … I am happy they moved it back because it was so easy of a shot. I say that even though we didn’t shoot it great.’
Doubts still linger. The women’s three-point line remains at 19-9, which means basketball courts throughout the country will be crowded with double lines. True, the lines must be contrasting colors, which helps subconsciously. But it easily could welcome confusion, throw a kink into spot-up rhythm or even provoke a reverse effect, Seton Hall head coach Bobby Gonzalez said.
He understands the logic. Gonzalez whole-heartedly agrees the move back is ‘good for the game.’ But what if it backfires? What if the extended line becomes a strategic defensive tool and the exact flaw the rule’s meant to correct – an incessant infatuation with the 3-pointer – becomes an inevitability.
No, Gonzalez does not subscribe to this theory. But he’s skeptical.
‘I am curious,’ Gonzalez said. ‘Some coaches think that defenses will stuff the middle with a zone defense now and force teams to shoot the longer 3, behind the new line.’Such a scheme should weave seamlessly into Syracuse’s 2-3 defense. Last year, Jim Boeheim’s zone naturally forced offenses to take far-and-away more 3-pointers than any other team in the Big East (855). Once again, SU lived by (holding Georgetown to 22 first-half points in a Feb.16 win) and died by (Kyle McAlarney’s 9-for-11 masterpiece from 3 in a Feb. 24 defeat at Notre Dame) its 2-3 defense last year.
Now that the 3-point shot is deeper, Boeheim’s trademark defense could thrive.
‘We can use this to our advantage and push things out, especially against teams that can’t shoot that well,’ Rautins said.
NCAA Rules Committee Chair Dick Hack said the core motive of the extension was not that the 19-9 was necessarily an elementary distance for the college game, as Roberts suggested. Instead, the ever-evolving climate of college basketball – bigger, faster, stronger physical specimens clogging a finite court size – was a built-up dilemma the NCAA needed to address.
‘With the court dimensions always remaining the same, how can you create more space on the basketball court, particularly inside?’ Hack said.
So Hack and co. considered all possible factors: widening the lane, instituting a restraining arc underneath the hoop akin what the NBA added (a four-foot area where defensive players cannot take charges), and any manipulation of lines within the court to de-clog the paint and incite more short jumpers.
After every year, coaches, officials and supervisors of officials and conference commissioners fill out surveys so the NCAA can gauge any possible rule changes and the 3-point line became the central concern, talked about but not changed. But two years ago, 69 percent of the coaches signed off on the line extension, and rumors became reality. ‘Ultimately, when you think of the sport of football, when they wanted to improve the passing game, they moved the hashmarks toward the center of the field to give receivers more room to operate,’ Hack said. ‘By moving the arc out a foot and not touch anything else it’s going to force the defense to come out a little bit further, which could open up more in the middle.’
Eleven percent more surface area, to be exact. Rautins reeled off the possibilities the extended line creates: Jonny Flynn’s penetration, Arinze Onuaku on the block, Eric Devendorf and himself from deep. More space, more plays.
Hack admitted players have become too enamored by the trifecta. Five years ago, during the 2001-02 season, 19 Division I schools attempted 700 shots from 3 and only two teams hoisted more than 800. Last season, 46 teams had at least 700 shots behind the arc, while 10 hoisted more than 800.
Home perspective? In 1986-87, the 3-point line’s inaugural year, Syracuse put up 248 shots from deep. During the 2006-07 season, the Orange pumped up 705 3-pointers. Sliding back one foot may not be drastic (the NBA 3-point line is 23 feet, 9 inches), but coaches say the change should reincarnate the midrange jumper. ‘Kids had a tendency to run to the line and sometimes bad shooters are taking that shot,’ Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez makes a point to remind his team regularly of the extended line in team meetings. The move fosters ‘teaching,’ he said. That four-word cliché, ‘Get in your range,’ suddenly carries more punch. Twelve more inches will wean out the players that ‘shouldn’t’ shoot 3-pointers, he said.
And those that ‘should’ shoot 3s tend to fire away from deeper zip codes, anyway, he said. It comes as no surprise to Roberts that Rautins could care less about the new line.
‘I don’t think it’s so deep that it’s going to change the game a whole lot,’ Roberts said. ‘If you have a guy that’s a long-range shooter like (Jonny) Flynn and Rautins, they shoot it from two feet behind that line, anyway.’
Time will tell. At its roots, the extension is fundamentally sound, coaches agree. Percentages may decrease. There may be an adjustment period for players, coaches and officials alike.
But red flags haven’t sprouted yet. Through preseason workouts, Rautins has noticed no difference. Players aren’t glancing down at their feet to nestle behind the new line, nor complaining at all about the line. Maybe the extension will show in the second half when fatigued players tend to shoot with their arms, instead of their legs, Rautins pondered. Though he contests SU’s strength program ensures this won’t happen to his team.
So, no. Rautins can’t nitpick at the monumental change yet.
‘Not really. Everybody out here has been shooting that thing man,’ Rautins said. ‘I don’t think anybody is dwelling on it at all. I think guys just roll with the punches.’
Published on October 13, 2008 at 12:00 pm
