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Let’s review Cuonzo Martin’s proposals to fix college basketball

Here are today’s Mizzou Links.

By Bill Connelly

I pretty consistently talk about the things I don’t like about college basketball at the moment, and the head coach at my alma mater recently talked about ways to fix college basketball. Seems that might be something I should break down in detail, huh?

Move from halves to quarters

Cuonzo Martin said that he would love to see men’s hoops move to 10-minute quarters like the women’s game did not too long ago.

In the men’s game, it takes seven fouls in a half to put your opponent in the bonus (one-and-one) and 10 fouls in a half to put your opponent in the double bonus (two free-throws).

In the women’s game, it takes five fouls in a quarter to put your opponent in the bonus (in this case, two free-throws).

For viewers, quarters also reduce one TV timeout per half. The women have three: at the 5-minute mark of each quarter and between the quarters. The men have four, at the 16-, 12-, 8- and 4-minute marks.

If nothing else, this would mean that the refs’ whole “gotta call 17 fouls in the first four minutes of the second half to show everyone we’re in control” routine would only have an impact on the third quarter and wouldn’t mean both teams are in the double bonus for the last 12 minutes of the game. That would be outstanding, even though I haven’t found myself complaining about that phenomenon quite as much this season.

Expanding from five fouls to six

Now, when you’ve got a star freshman like Jeremiah Tilmon, who often finds himself in foul trouble, it’s easy for someone to accuse you of being biased on an issue like this. Of course you would like for this potential stud to be on the court more.

I honestly don’t have an opinion either way on this one.

Shortening the shot clock

I will say that I think the 30-second shot clock has had a positive aesthetic effect, even if it maybe results in a few more “oh crap, gotta shoot” 3s here or there. For the most part, teams are handling it. And as Missouri and others are proving, you can still move really slowly if you want to.

Martin, purveyor of the No. 325 offense in terms of Adj. Tempo, said he wouldn’t mind further shrinking the shot clock. I ... guess that’s fine? At some point you maybe reach diminishing returns, but it would certainly impact the tempo.

The quarters thing would be pretty exciting, if nothing else. The other two things, I’m less sure about. Quarters wouldn’t simply be “let’s add a break halfway through the half.” The change would have an impact on the bonus, and it would save refs from themselves to at least a tiny degree. Let’s do it.

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