College basketball is great, there’s nothing like March Madness, and we’re not saying it’s not. But it could be even better with one simple rule change. Analyst and announcer Doris Burke has the answer. Simple but effective. Allow teams to advance the ball on a timeout.
Let’s say it’s the end of the game and a team makes a free throw to go up one and there 1.0 second left. If this is college, the game is basically over. The team will inbound the ball and probably get a half court prayer of some sort. Aside from a few miracle shots, they usually don’t go in. HOWEVER, in the NBA, different ball game. You call a timeout and can advance the ball to your side of the court. With 1.0 remaining you can get a dribble or two in even and get a great look at the basket. Pretty easy to see the appeal.
It clearly makes the game more exciting. You’re never really out of it in the NBA if its a one possession game and you have more then a few tenths of a second left. The same can’t be said for college sadly. Think about how much crazier march madness would be with that! The amount of game winners and overtime games would surely increase. That sounds good to me, what about you? I’m all for getting the most competitive exciting game possible. This rule change does just that.
Also, for the critics who say “oh its not fair they move the ball without doing anything”. Shut up, that’s a weak argument. It rewards teams for strategy and increases the importance of timeouts. If you don’t have one left, that sucks for your team. But if you’re smart and play your cards right, now we have a ball game. None of these full court prayers which are honestly mostly luck. Let’s let the players play and utilize their skills. Doris nailed this one out of the park.
