ROGERS -- Arkansas Coach Mike Anderson said he is looking forward to his Razorbacks playing basketball faster than ever next season.
The Razorbacks figure to need to force the pace to compensate for the loss of 6-11 SEC Player of the Year Bobby Portis to the NBA Draft from last season's 27-9 team, but likely rules changes also should help them turn up the tempo on opponents.
The NCAA Basketball Rules Committee has proposed three significant rules changes for the 2015-2016 season:
• Reduce the shot clock from 35 to 30 seconds;
• Reduce the number of timeouts a team can call from 5 to 4 per half;
• Expand the restricted area arc in the lane -- where defensive players are not allowed to draw a charge -- from 3 to 4 feet;
For the rule changes to take effect in games, they must be approved by the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel, which will hold a teleconference June 8 to discuss the proposals.
Anderson stated his strong support for the shot clock and timeout reduction proposals when he met with the media Monday at Shadow Valley Country Club while hosting a golf tournament which benefits several charities, including the American Cancer Society and local food banks.
The motto for Anderson's teams in his 13 seasons as a head coach at Alabama-Birmingham, Missouri and Arkansas has been "The Fastest 40 Minutes" in college basketball with a style predicated on forcing an uptempo game with pressure defense and attacking the basket on offense.
Anderson has said prevously he would love for college teams to play with a 24-second shot clock, as do NBA teams. College teams have used a 35-second shot clock since 1993. The men's game didn't have a shot clock at all until implementing a 45-second one in 1985.
Arkansas, along with other teams, experimented with a 30-shot clock in exhibition games last season, and the Razorbacks beat Central Oklahoma 110-74 and Pittsburg State 89-66.
"Obviously, I'm in favor of the (faster) shot clock, because that hasn't been a problem for us," Anderson said. "It speeds the game up, so it's going back to how we play when you talk about possessions.
"We want to have as many possessions as we can. We play an exciting brand of basketball, and I think that's probably what the fans and TV are wanting."
Arkansas led the SEC and ranked 18th nationally in scoring offense last season, averaging 77.4 points.
"We want to continue that trend," Anderson said.
Across all of Division I, teams averaged 67.7 points per game last season, the third-lowest since 1952 according to the NCAA. Last season was the first time teams averaged fewer than 65 possessions since at least 2002 according to the New York Times.
"The committee has taken significant steps to reverse the trends in the sport that are concerning to the men's college basketball world," said Belmont Coach Rick Byrd, chairman of the rules committee. "We have spent the past year collecting data, opinions and considering proposals that will help our game.
"Our anticipation is that dedicated officiating enforcement, along with this package of changes, will help balance the offense and defense in our game."
A key part of Arkansas' strategy is to wear down opponents by using a lot of players, so having one less timeout per half figures to help the Razorbacks in that pursuit.
"You talk about the timeouts -- I like that, too," Anderson said. "You've got enough with the timeouts that we get and also with the TV timeouts. There's a lot of dead time there."
Anderson didn't express strong feelings either way on moving the charge arc another foot from the basket.
"Supposedly it stops the rough play," Anderson said. "If it's for the betterment of the game, fine, but I still think we've got a great game and we don't want to put too many new rules in there."
Sports on 05/19/2015