Things the Confidential Would Like to See In College Hoops…
Everyone is a critic. Everyone has an opinion. But not everyone has this forum for sharing it. So here are the things the Confidential would like to see in College Hoops. In no particular order:
- How about an elimination of the timeout/timeout stuff during basketball games? If a team calls a timeout with 16:20 left in the half, it must be a timeout that lasts for a commercial break. Does anyone really need 30 seconds of play in between commercial breaks? It is almost as bad as the NFL with its… commercial, kickoff, commercial crap.
- Call us crazy, but we WANT to see Andy Enfield of Florida Gulf Coast go to USC. First, it would be nice for someone to kick the crap out of Steve Alford, who left Iowa and has now left New Mexico. We get that the 10-year contract means very little, but at least give it a year. Not a week. So the Confidential would love to see Dunk City shift over to L.A. Second, Enfield plays an exciting brand of basketball. That is needed on the West Coast. Good fit. Third, his wife has had motherhood take away from her modeling career. Being back in the LA area would be nice for her. Granted, if they do not want it, so be it. But, if they do, it is fine with the Confidential.
- How about some props for Jim Boeheim–perhaps even a few mea culpas by the talking heads? A fourth final four, in four decades. This team is not one of his most talented, but defense counts and they are very talented defenders. An excellent tournament run.
- Some prayers for Kevin Ware. Plenty of people get injured each day, but not all of them have to do it in the floor in front of thousands and on TV in front of millions.
- Charles Barkley retiring from the CBS host gig for March Madness. His opinions are not that insightful. Frankly, they are not even accurate. While Barkley deserves credit for being opinionated and having the guts to share that opinion, even better would be if his opinions included sound basketball analysis. He may know the NBA game, but there have to be 1,000 guys who know the college game more.
- Give credit to Rick Pitino. He has wasted a ton of time in the NBA, but still has 7 Final Fours.
What do YOU want out of college hoops? Let us know.
The Confidential 
I don’t remember who suggested this first, but someone on this site (or possibly a commenter at Nunes) came up with the idea that coaches should have the ability to accept/decline fouls similar to football where a coach can accept/decline penalties depending on which is more advantageous.
This could be critical for non-shooting fouls when a team is in the bonus. Instead of stopping the clock for a touch foul, where a player has a one-and-one, the coach can decide they don’t want to shoot free throws and instead will resume their possession with a new inbounds. The foul is still assessed to the player (and counts as a team foul) but the fouled player doesn’t have to take the shots. [Naturally, intentional and flagrant fouls would be treated as such].
That way if a coach is trying to milk the clock, and doesn’t want to send their players to the foul line and risk losing the possession after missing 1 shot ,then the other team has to either continue fouling until they get to the double bonus, foul in the act of shooting (which will allow the team with possession to burn more time), or try to get the ball back without fouling. This also means that if the other team keeps fouling a low-percentage shooter, the fouled team doesn’t have to force that player to shoot. These things can all drain the clock without having too many stoppages, especially down the stretch.
That is a very interesting proposal.
I also would not mind seeing some timeouts–maybe two–be converted from 30 second timeouts to merely “clock-stoppers.” Where the clock stops, but no meeting. As it is, there are 14 opportunities for everyone to gather down the stretch anyway–checking time on clock, guys fouling out, and so on.
The Rutgers situation with the alleged abuse during practices reminded me of a proposal I heard concerning NCAA player transfer rules. I think players should be able to transfer without penalty if they have a GPA set at a reasonable point, like a 2.5. Coaches are allowed to leave anytime and without penalty even after committing to a long term contract just 10 days prior, see Alford. Players scholarships are primarily renewed on an annual basis, the decision to renew it should be mutual. A multi year scholarship should be fully honored by both sides except under special circumstances.
That is an interesting idea. Of course, then there is an incentive for Universities to have their kids at a 2.45.
The whole thing is just troublesome to solve. If players could move freely… just imagine how good some schools could become overnight. If the one-and-done stuff at Kentucky is distasteful, imagine every good Freshman leaving for one program. Why not? Calipari could leave Kentucky for Auburn, and then Auburn would suddenly reach the pinnacle of basketball success too…