SoCal College News

New Rule Changes for
1997-98 Season--(November 10, 1997)

This season's early games will feature some experimental rule changes. Games will consist of four 10-minute quarters, and the shot clock will be 40 seconds instead of 35. In addition, the "closely guarded rule", our personal favorite in the high school game, is back. If a player is being "closely guarded", he must either pick up his dribble, pass the ball, shoot or make forward progress. If he stands dribbling or holding the ball for more than five seconds while "closely guarded" by the defender, without passing or shooting, the ball is called dead and turned over to the opposing team.

We'd be willing to bet that the "closely guarded rule", which sometimes come into play in the high school and AAU level of play, will not be much of a factor in the more up-tempo college game, although you might see it from schools who are undermanned or undersized who attempt to control tempo by slowing down the game, such as Princeton did against UCLA two years ago in Pete Carill's last season.

We'd also be willing to bet that one rule that will see more enforcement among the colleges this year (and in the high schools--it's already getting much deserved attention at the AAU level) is the carryover rule. These days, its virtually impossible to see a game in which the point does not usually carryover the ball, and many fine college players have begun to emulate the pros. On Sunday at the UCLA Preview Day Scrimmage, Baron Davis, about as good a new college point guard as anyone, was called for carrying twice in the first fifteen minutes. Although they don't call this in the NBA, the refs are going to begin to regularly call it in college this season.

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