Chalk Talk: Will Wade on the New NCAA Rules
The upcoming 2015-2016 NCAA basketball season will bring added pressure to college basketball.
Devin Bethea
Contributing writer
The upcoming 2015-2016 NCAA basketball season will bring added pressure to college basketball.
In June, the NCAA enforced new rules that will take effect this season. VCU’s first year head coach, Will Wade, sat down with Mike Litos and shared his thoughts on the NCAA and the new rules for the upcoming season.
One of the new rules the NCAA is enforcing is a reduced shot clock. The shot clock will change from 35 seconds to 30 seconds.
“I think it will play into our hands,” Wade said. “I certainly think it helps that you don’t have to guard in the half court as long.”
Last year the Rams ranked top 5 in the nation for steals per game, total steals and turnover margin. Another rule change taking effect is the restricted arc, which will now move from three feet to four feet. The NCAA hopes this change will help limit collisions around the basket.
“That’s part of the reason our motto has been to have some bigs down there you have to have length. It’s going to make the blocked shot that much more important. It makes it important to come from the weak side and block shots,” Wade said.
VCU is fortunate enough to have length and size on the court with 6’ 10” sophomore forward Michael Gilmore and 6’ 7” sophomore Justin Tillman. The main defensive presence will be from junior forward Mo Alie-Cox who led the team in blocks last season and was second in rebounding.
Teams will now have one fewer timeouts and officials will be able to review fouls and made field goals on shot clock violations. This rule change removes the ability for coaches to call timeouts when the ball is live and other intricates regarding the pace of the game.
When Wade was asked if he feels the totality of the rule changes are a good thing for college basketball or not, he emphasized his team is just focused on playing ball and everything else will stay on course.
“I think so,” Wade said. “ And the way I look at it, (the rules) aren’t changing. They’ve already been implemented and we need to adjust accordingly.”