Change is tough

Gene Steinmeyer

I have never understood why men’s and women’s basketball want to have separate rules. It just doesn’t make sense. Does it happen in other sports? Does softball allow four outs per inning just to be different than baseball? Does men’s soccer count each goal as two points so it won’t be the same as women’s soccer?

Somewhere along the way, the hierarchy of men’s and women’s basketball decided they wanted to play their own game. Did you know basketball in the NCAA is quite a bit different than international basketball like you see in the Olympics?

You can never dive on the floor for the ball and call a timeout to save the possession in international basketball. All timeouts must be called by the coach through the bench personnel, not by a player on the floor. I know it sounds impossible, but the men and women use the same size of basketball in international play. It’s almost scandalous.

That certainly isn’t true in both high school and college basketball in the United States. When I started coaching high school girls’ basketball, the men’s-sized basketball was used by both genders. That changed in the early 1980s when the women’s ball was shortened about an inch in diameter.

Do I smell conspiracy? Every high school and collegiate team now had to order separate basketballs. I assume the profits of the basketball manufacturers saw a dramatic increase.

At least in high school, except for the size of the ball, the rules were the same. When I began coaching college basketball at Doane College in 1984, I discovered that the men’s and women’s rules committee just didn’t see the game the same way.

It started with the shot clock. This may seem like a big generality, but I think men are more resistant to change than women in the game of basketball. The men started with a 45-second shot clock, the women decided the shot clock should be at 30 seconds. The whole time, the NBA was set at 24 seconds on its shot clock.

It didn’t make sense why the sport was played with two or three sets of rules. I didn’t care what the shot clock read, I just wanted consistent rules. Would baseball consider a two-strike strikeout just to be different than women’s softball?

The men started getting closer to the women’s rules when they set the shot clock back 10 seconds. The men’s rules committee just couldn’t admit the women’s shot clock rule might be ideal, so it was set at 35 seconds for the men.

There were other differences between the two genders in basketball beside the size of the basketball and the shot clock. The women haven’t had a 10-second backcourt rule and it’s not a turnover for a five-second closely guarded rule for a dribbler.

This had to be really tough for the men’s rule committee to do, but in the face of boring offensive basketball, the shot clock was dropped to 30 seconds. In 2015, the unbelievable will happen. Men’s and women’s will have the same shot clock. Maybe softball will move the pitcher’s mound back to 60 feet, 6 inches to match baseball.

Just about the time the two genders will have the same basic look in the rule book, the women’s committee threw a big curve in the consistency of the rules. It was recently announced that the women’s NCAA basketball game will no longer be played with two 20-minute halves. Instead, there will be four 10-minute quarters.

Why should I expect anything different? In the MIAA, as with most NCAA Division II conferences, the men’s and women’s games are played as part of a doubleheader. I guess it will keep the fans on their toes trying to keep up with the rule changes.

I do have to admit the women changed one rule that I think is fantastic. If the high school rules committee had a brain in its head, it would copy the college game. That rule is team fouls reset at the beginning of each quarter.

There’s nothing that slows down a game than the constant march to the free-throw line. Before, if a team got in the bonus five minutes into the game, it was stuck there for the last 15 minutes of the half. The new rule change resets the foul count each quarter. Way to go, women’s rules committee. Are you listening, men’s committee?

Of course it isn’t. My ideas of the rules might be a little one-sided. For instance, I think the signal for offsides should be the same in soccer and football. This may seem a little radical, but is it too much to ask that the men’s and women’s rules committee try to compromise?

After all, it works out fine for the rest of the world. International basketball seems to get along with consistent rules. Here’s my solution. Take the men’s and women’s committees into a large room with a long table. Glasses and pitchers of ice water are provided, but no bathroom. Lock and bar the doors and don’t let anyone out until the rules are the same. I know that would motivate me.